WORLD : Thais to Repatriate Boat People

BANGKOK, Thailand —  Thailand intends to clear thousands of boat people from its refugee camps in the next two years, sending many of them back to Vietnam, a senior Thai official said today.

Kasit Bhirom, director-general of the International Organizations Department, said the Thai government will make every effort to move about 12,000 refugees, most of them Vietnamese boat people, out of camps in Thailand.

“They may either get the right to resettle in third countries or they will have to be repatriated,” he said. “We believe that in 1992 there will be no more of these refugees in Thailand.”