Editing Orderly Departure Program (section)

==Background==

In June 1979, more than 54,000 Vietnamese refugees arrived by boat in neighboring Southeast Asian countries and [[Hong Kong]]. This culminated in several months in which the numbers of refugees making the dangerous passage in small boats from Vietnam had steadily grown. With new arrivals of Vietnam piling up in squalid [[refugee camp]]s, the countries of Southeast Asia united in declaring that they had "reached the limit of their endurance and decided that they would not accept any new arrivals."<ref name="unhcr.org">[http://www.unhcr.org/3ebf9bad0.html ''State of the World's Refugees, 2000''] United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, pp. 83,84; accessed 8 Jan 2014</ref>

In response, the UNHCR convened an international conference in [[Geneva, Switzerland]], in July 1979, stating that "a grave crisis exists in Southeast Asia for hundreds of thousands of refugees." Illustrating the prominence of the issue, Vice President [[Walter Mondale]] headed the U.S. delegation. The results of the conference were that the Southeast Asian countries agreed to provide temporary asylum to the refugees, Vietnam agreed to promote orderly departures and prevent the exodus of boat people, and the Western countries agreed to accelerate resettlement. The Orderly Departure Program enabled Vietnamese, if approved, to depart Vietnam for resettlement in another country without having to leave their country and attempt the voyage by boat to a neighboring country.<ref>Kumin, Judith "Orderly Departure from Vietnam: Cold War Anomaly or Humanitarian Innovation?" ''Refugee Survey Quarterly'', Vol. 27, No. 1 (2008), p. 104</ref>