China has provided shelter to nearly 300,000 refugees since the late 1970s, a Ministry of Civil Affairs official said on World Refugee Day Thursday.
The official, who declined to be named, told China Daily that China has cooperated closely with the United Nations in dealing with the refugees, most of whom came from Viet Nam.
The official said: "The Chinese Government has paid a good deal of attention to women refugees, who make up 48 percent of the total, safeguarded their interests through legislation and helped solve practical difficulties facing them."
Priority has been given to women when finding jobs for refugees, added the official.
In South China's Guangdong Province alone, more than 2,000 adult refugees and their children have been resettled in urban areas, the official said. Half of the adults are women.
An official at the Beijing office under the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said: "Vietnamese refugees are well integrated in Chinese society and enjoy similar rights to Chinese citizens in terms of education, health and employment."
The refugee agency has run a revolving fund program aimed at providing employment for Vietnamese refugees and Guangdong locals. The official, who also declined to be named, said: "The emphasis is put on targeting women as priority beneficiaries of this program."
Yesterday was the second World Refugee Day, and the UN agency said activities were held from Afghanistan to Zambia focusing on the contributions to millions of refugee women.
In his annual World Refugee Day statement released yesterday in Beijing, UN High Commissioner Ruud Lubbers noted that women and their children make up the vast majority of the world's nearly 20 million refugees and others of concern to his agency.
China has provided asylum and a safe future to the Vietnamese refugees it has received, said UNHCR officials in Beijing.
During the 1978-79 conflict between China and Viet Nam, many people from northern Viet Nam -- most of whom were ethnic Chinese -- fled to China.
The Chinese Government provided the refugees with shelter and subsequently settled them on 190 State-run farms in six provinces, including Fujian in East China, Guangdong and Hainan in South China.
(China Daily June 21, 2002)
