Insufficient voluntary repatriation of refugees

In 1992, 48,000 Vietnamese were still living in camps in Hong Kong, which now houses as many Vietnamese refugees as all the other nations in the region combined. Of these, only a tiny proportion are deemed to be political refugees, eligible for resettlement in the West, such as the USA which has taken large numbers. Many refugees, however, are realizing that no other country will take them in and are choosing to return from the camps in Hong Kong at an increasing rate -- since the autumn of 1991, at a average rate of 1,000 a month.

In 1992, 2,430,000 refugees returned to their own country, principally from Iraq and Pakistan to Afghanistan (1,516,000 returnees). Other substantial returns were Cambodia 237,000; Vietnam 17,000; and Mozambique 176,000.