World Notes REFUGEES

With compassion for the Vietnamese boat people nearly exhausted after an exodus that began in 1975, last week's Geneva conference on Indochinese refugees produced a unanimous vote to adopt a tough new policy.

For the 50,000 asylum seekers who landed in Southeast Asia before governments in the region stopped guaranteeing them refugee status, there was good news: resettlement countries such as the U.S., Canada and Australia agreed to take in 55,000 more escapees. But for those who arrived later, the outlook was bleak. Only the few who can prove that they left to avoid persecution and not just to escape economic privation will be eligible to enter other countries. The rest will be encouraged and perhaps eventually forced to return home. But at the moment, Viet Nam is refusing to take them back.