SALT LAKE CITY — In 2004, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Migration and Refugee Services committee sent a delegation on a fact-finding mission to Asia. As the leader of this commission, Bishop John Wester saw precisely the conditions of refugees in China, Vietnam, Thailand, and the Philippines. "While our mission holds special memories of communion and solidarity with the peoples of the countries we visited, we also learned firsthand about the suffering of thousands of refugees in the region who live in fear and poverty," Bishop Wester wrote in a report on his trip. "The members of the delegation and I returned from the region committed to raising our voices on their behalf to our elected officials in the United States and to others of goodwill," he wrote. The report is divided into several sections, each investigating the plights of a certain group of refugees in that area: North Korean refugees in China, Burmese and Hmong refugees in Thailand, refugee resettlement from Vietnam, and Vietnamese remaining in the Philippines since the Vietnam War. "The plight of refugees in Asia differs vastly from one part to another," the report begins. "In China, North Koreans live a hunted existence and many are forced back into the hands of a government in Pyongyang that has destroyed the country’s economy, caused devastating famine, and continues to brutalize its citizens. "In Vietnam, the United States provides resettlement for a modest number of Vietnamese with some ties to our country," the report continues, "a process that generally works well but confronts certain problems including limiting access to certain deserving groups of prospective refugees. "Thailand is temporary home both to more than 100,000 Burmese who have lived for many years in border camps with no prospect of timely return, and to Hmong hill tribe people from Laos whom the United states has just started to interview for resettlement. "In the Philippines, some 2,000 Vietnamese who escaped Vietnam in the 1980s remain unable to regularize their status there and enjoy the rights of citizens; they are being considered for U.S. entry. "These situations have two characteristics in common; they involve hopelessness, misery, and sometimes death for the people involved; and they resist solution because of their complexity." The report offers no easy answers for complete solutions to help the people involved. Each of the problems is analyzed and several recommendations are presented for alleviating the problems, with the eventual goal of a livable solution for all the individuals involved. "With expenditure of great effort and the passage of time," the report concludes, "solutions are possible. The more flexible attitude on the part of the Royal Thai Government toward resettlement of its Hmong and Burmese refugee populations is an example. "So is the policy of the Government of Vietnam, whose willingness to allow the voluntary departure of its citizens has increased significantly since the end of the Vietnam War. "Our trip deepened our conviction that the United States has a unique, indispensable role to play in refugee matters. Other governments listen to us. U.S. military and economic power dictate that they must. "But it is U.S. moral leadership which gives us the standing to remind others of their obligations, and our diplomatic skills that are our government’s most potent weapons. For the benefit of China’s North Koreans and for refugees in many other places, it is essential that our country continue, and indeed intensify, its efforts on their behalf."
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