B. whereas most Member States have reduced their participation in food aid programmes, bringing about food shortages in the refugees’ first host countries, particularly Jordan and Lebanon;

D. whereas strategic use of the resettlement programme could have direct and indirect benefits not only for refugees being resettled but also for other refugees remaining in the first country of asylum, for the host country and for other countries and also with regard to all international arrangements for their protection,

– (FR) European citizens should not be deceived by the title of this report: by resettlement. We are not talking about some aid package or other for the repatriation of immigrants, but about the reception, on EU territory, on the recommendation of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, of people who have already sought asylum in a third country – the first country of asylum or refuge that, for some reason or another, does not suit them or does not suit the United Nations.

As part of a genuine partnership with countries in the source region, the Commission also intends to present regional protection programmes aimed at strengthening the capacity to grant international protection via the first host countries;

18. Deplores the fact that the Council is unable to establish a consistent approach to managing an immigration policy capable of tackling the challenges of the 21st century by providing legal entry channels, integration policies and relations with third countries aimed at turning immigration into a positive factor for both the countries of origin and the host countries; welcomes the adoption of Council Directive 2003/109/EC of 25 November 2003 concerning the status of third-country nationals who are long-term residents , in order to facilitate their integration as a key element of economic and social cohesion, and of the Directive on fa ...[+++]mily reunification, which represent the first pieces of legislation adopted by the Community in the field of legal immigration, even though it would have wished their content to be less limited than is in fact the case following the negotiations in the Council; deplores even more the fact that the Council is not even able to adopt the measures already proposed regarding entry and residence for purposes of working, studying or training;

BACKGROUND: EC-VIETNAMESE RELATIONS Following Vietnam's unilateral retreat from Cambodia in 1989 and the Vietnamese authorities' agreement to take back asylum seekers from countries of first asylum in South-East Asia, the way was open for relations between the EC and Vietnam to be normalized, and this happened in November 1990.