US embassy cable - 05MANILA4669

UNCLAS MANILA 004669 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR EAP/MTS, EAP/MLS, PRM, DRL 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, PREL, PHUM, PREF, VM, RP, IOM 
SUBJECT: PHILIPPINES: VIETNAMESE REFUGEES LEAVE LIMBO AT 
LAST 
 
 
1. (SBU) This message is Sensitive but Unclassified; please 
handle accordingly. 
 
2.  (SBU) Summary.  The final group of refugees who fled 
Vietnam for the Philippines 15-30 years ago began resettling 
in the U.S. this week.  A projected 1600 refugees will 
ultimately be resettled; the fate of 400 refugees who do not 
qualify for resettlement remains uncertain.  The resettlement 
program has been received favorably in the Philippines.  End 
Summary. 
 
3. (U) On Monday, September 26, 2005, 229 Vietnamese refugees 
who had left Manila for the United States landed at Los 
Angeles International airport and began the process of 
resettlement in the US.  They were the first of approximately 
1600 Vietnamese refugees remaining in the Philippines and now 
being processed for possible resettlement in the U.S. 
 
4.  (U) The Vietnamese refugees were among those who fled 
Vietnam to the Philippines between 1975, when the communist 
government took control of the south, and 1989, when the 
United Nations declared that people fleeing Vietnam were 
doing so for economic rather than political reasons, and were 
therefore not entitled to refugee status.  The UN began 
closing Vietnamese refugee camps in Asia in 1996, but an 
attempt to close the Philippines' camp on the island of 
Palawan was met with refusal and even rioting by the 
refugees.  After the intercession of the Catholic Church, the 
GRP allowed the refugees to stay in the Philippines.  The GRP 
would not, however, grant citizenship or even legal residency 
to the refugees, and they have been in a legal and diplomatic 
limbo until now. 
 
 
5.  (U) Beginning in 2004, Post began working with the U.S. 
Consulate in Ho Chi Minh City, the Department's Bureau of 
Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM), the U.S. 
Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), and the 
International Organization for Migration (IOM) to relocate 
the refugees to the United States.  1370 refugees still in 
the Philippines will ultimately be resettled.  The fate of 
another 400 refugees remains in question, however; these are 
refugees who lost their eligibility for migration to the US 
because they married Filipinos, but remain ineligible for 
legal residency under Philippine law because they originally 
entered the country illegally.  The USG, GRP and IOM continue 
to work to achieve an equitable solution in this issue. 
 
6.  (SBU) Comment.  The resettlement program is a positive 
example of USG, IOM, and GRP cooperation.  In general, local 
media reaction to the beginning of the resettlement has been 
very positive and largely self-congratulatory.  The 
Philippine press has used the event as an opportunity to 
trumpet the positive role the Philippines has played as host 
to the refugees, while all but ignoring the GRP's refusal to 
grant the refugees residency status.  End Comment. 
 
JOHNSON