For several years after the fall of the South Vietnamese government in 1975, countries in Southeast Asia agreed to grant temporary asylum to the thousands of people who fled Vietnam. By the late 1980s, however, the rate of resettlement was far less than the huge and growing influx of asylum seekers from Vietnam. In response, the CPA was developed and adopted by 75 countries in June 1989 to address the Vietnamese boat people problem. It required anyone who arrived in first asylum countriesafter March 1989 to undergo a formal refugee status determination and demonstrate they had a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion according to internationally recognized refugee standards and criteria. The agreement called for the establishment of a consistent regionwide refugee status determination process and reaffirmed that the first asylum countries were responsible for determining who qualified as a refugee. UNHCR’s role under the CPA was to help the first asylum countries develop screening procedures that were consistent with international norms and to monitor the implementation of the program. It was responsible for training first asylum country officials involved in the screening process, coordinating the timely resettlement of those determined to be refugees, and administering a safe repatriation program for nonrefugees. In addition, UNHCR was required to review and assess the CPA’s implementation and consider additional measures to improve the effectiveness of the program. UNHCR also has independent authority under its charter to formally recognize or “mandate” cases it believes deserve refugee status and, within the context of the CPA program, to reconsider the claims of rejected asylum seekers. This authority provided a third layer of review in many situations. Since the adoption of the CPA, more than 120,000 Vietnamese asylum seekers have been screened for refugee status. Of those asylum seekers screened, close to 33,000 were determined to be refugees and resettled in third countries, including some 12,900 individuals who came to the United States. The screening of cases generally concluded in the region in 1994, and many of those who were determined not to be refugees (“screened out”) returned voluntarily to Vietnam. However, in early 1995, close to 40,000 screened-out asylum seekers remained in the camps. From early on in the screening process, outside advocacy groups and representatives from the U.S. Congress and other interested countries raised concerns about the integrity and fairness of the screening process and possible corruption that may have occurred in certain circumstances. These concerns intensified as the screening process came to a close and attention was focused on the screened-out asylum seekers who remained in the first asylum country camps. Some of the issues raised by refugee advocates included asylum seekers not knowing how to present their cases; information being distorted because of poor translation by interpreters; screening officials conducting incomplete interviews; reasons for denial not being provided to asylum seekers, thereby preventing them from preparing adequate appeals; and screening officials not having access to accurate information about country conditions in Vietnam. Refugee advocates also alleged that corruption in some countries resulted in asylum seekers with strong cases being screened out for failing to pay bribes or consenting to sexual demands by screening officials. The pressure from outside sources led UNHCR to further review some selected cases and investigate the allegations of corruption in the screening process. UNHCR acknowledged that problems existed in the screening process, particularly in the early stages of screening with the use of unqualified interpreters, delays in the processing of refugee status decisions, and the lack of legal assistance on appeals in some cases. It also concluded that corruption cannot be ruled out and that, at least in Indonesia and the Philippines, the impact of corruption was likely to have resulted in some weaker cases being screened in by the first asylum government officials. A specific tenet of the CPA was the “need to respect the family unit.” According to the UNHCR Handbook, if the head of a family is granted refugee status, then his or her spouse and members of the immediate family are also normally granted refugee status to maintain the family unit.Children who are minors are generally considered to be part of the immediate family; others, such as aged parents, may be included if they are living in the same household and dependency can be established. Under the principle of family unity, family members do not have to establish an independent well-founded fear of persecution; rather, refugee status is based on their family connection to a refugee. Adult children who are not dependent on their parents are not eligible for family unity consideration and would undergo separate screening under the CPA. Throughout the implementation of the CPA, UNHCR received numerous requests to consider cases under the principle of family unity. These involved individuals who claimed to have been separated from family members by the refugee screening process. Several included marriages that were not known or accepted as legitimate marriages by the first asylum countries or UNHCR; others involved children, siblings, or other relatives who claimed to have family linkages to individuals who had already resettled in a third country. Recognizing that some families may have been inadvertently split by the screening process, UNHCR undertook a broad regionwide review of screened-out cases in late 1994. By using its mandate authority, UNHCR could provide a means for screened-out family members to join immediate family members currently resettled elsewhere. UNHCR used the following criteria to review cases that might not have been assessed fairly on the basis of family unity during the regular refugee status determination process: Minors and dependant children were to be reunited with parents. Minors were defined as being younger than 18 at the time of the UNHCR review and dependency was based on the “totality of needs and relations.” Nonminor children and siblings who were not dependents were not considered for family reunification. Marriages predating the determination of refugee status were recognized regardless of whether couples had any children. Marriages postdating the refugee status decision would generally not be accepted unless they were proven to be “bona fide” and there was evidence of a “long-standing, pre-existing” relationship (the existence of children was proof). Obstacles to marriage were to be considered, such as difficulties in obtaining divorce papers from Vietnam, the asylum country not allowing formal marriages to take place (as was the case in Indonesia, for example), or a couple being underage. A key objective of the family unity initiative was to recognize legitimate marriages and relationships. UNHCR rejected marriages of convenience and other relationships that did not involve immediate family members or dependents. Many of the cases were relatively straightforward; however, several involved complicated family relationships that were difficult to resolve. Relationships that were not split as a result of the status determination process were also excluded from consideration, such as those involving family members who were resettled from a first asylum country prior to the CPA or from Vietnam directly through the Orderly Departure Program (ODP). UNHCR encouraged family relatives who did not qualify for reunification to return to Vietnam and use alternative migration opportunities, such as ODP. UNHCR’s family unity review began in Malaysia and was adopted shortly afterwards by other UNHCR field offices in the region. According to UNHCR officials, the resettlement countries and other CPA member countries initially criticized the initiative. The first asylum countries believed that family unity considerations had already been addressed during the regular refugee status determination process and that further review of cases would jeopardize an orderly conclusion to the CPA program. Resettlement countries believed that family unity considerations were more properly effected through their own established migration programs, such as ODP. In Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines, UNHCR reviewed hundreds of cases under its family reunification initiative. Most were rejected for failing to meet UNHCR’s established criteria, but UNHCR believed a small number had valid claims and forwarded them to various resettlement countries for consideration. UNHCR initially forwarded cases without a declaration of mandate because it wanted some assurance that cases would be accepted for resettlement. UNHCR wanted to avoid having screened-in individuals who might have no resettlement option and, because of their mandate status, no means to be repatriated either. This was a concern because individual resettlement countries’ criteria for family reunification could differ from UNHCR’s criteria. In Malaysia, there was strong support from the Malaysian government and the U.S. embassy to resolve family unity cases. UNHCR officials identified and forwarded 36 cases in early 1995 to the U.S. embassy for consideration. The U.S. embassy in Kuala Lumpur agreed to review the cases informally and provide UNHCR with an indication of whether the cases might qualify for resettlement. As a result of this, the United States accepted 23 cases involving 35 persons. The cases were subsequently mandated by UNHCR and resettled in the United States. In Indonesia and the Philippines, UNHCR also identified several cases that met its family unity criteria and submitted these cases to the resettlement countries for informal review. With respect to U.S.-related cases, UNHCR forwarded 13 cases from Indonesia and 23 cases from the Philippines to the respective U.S. embassies in late 1995. In contrast to the situation in Malaysia, however, there was no progress in resolving these cases for resettlement because the U.S. embassies took no action on the cases. U.S. embassy officials did not informally review cases and took the position that there could be no review or implied guarantee of resettlement without a UNHCR mandate. However, UNHCR officials did not want to issue a mandate without a clear indication that the cases would be accepted for resettlement. The impasse over the family unity cases in Indonesia and the Philippines continued from late 1995 through April 1996, when the U.S. Department of State issued written guidance to the embassies. The guidelines indicated that cases should not be reviewed unless they were mandated by UNHCR.