[vnforum] Germany says still has 21,000 illegal Vietnamese

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Germany says still has 21,000 illegal Vietnamese
10/12/2000 11:04:00 AM

HANOI, Oct 12 (Reuters) - Germany said on Thursday it had transferred $20
million to Vietnam to assist the repatriation of 30,000 Vietnamese immigrants,
but only 9,000 had so far returned.

"There are still about 21,000 illegal Vietnamese immigrants," Lothar Zimmer,
director of the Southeast Asian Department at Germany's Ministry for Economic
Cooperation and Development, told a news conference in Hanoi.

He said 80,000 Vietnamese were living in Germany when it was reunified in 1990,
most having gone as labourers to the former East Germany.

"We are not planning to repatriate all Vietnamese to their home country, only
one-third of them," Zimmer said, adding the programme was based on two
agreements the two countries signed in 1992 and 1995.

Under the latter accord, the repatriation programme was supposed to be
completed this year.

Zimmer said the illegal immigrants remained despite the fact Germany offered
funds to returnees to help them set up businesses in Vietnam.

After two days of talks in Hanoi, Zimmer said Germany was working with Vietnam
to encourage more to go back to a country many said they feared returning to,
by providing more objective information about conditions there today.

"Together with the Vietnamese government, we have to improve an image of
Vietnam a group of people in Germany says is bad," he said.

About three million people of Vietnamese origin live overseas, including many
who fled decades of war and a communist takeover.

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