ABSTRACT
The problem of refugee flows that manifested itself so alarmingly in 1979 had as much of an impact on the economies of ASEAN as it did on their individual national security policies. The inflow of refugees from the Indochinese states began rather fitfully in 1975 and reached crisis proportions in June 1979, when a total of 69,443 people crossed into neighboring countries in that month alone. The refugee flow, which had by then reached crisis proportions, was merely one dramatic manifestation of threats, but it was to be soon augmented by more brazen acts such as the brief military incursion into Thai territory by Vietnamese forces in June 1980. The problem of refugee flows and differences over the Kampuchean situation are in reality the manifestations of a deeper cleavage that will be difficult to overcome in the foreseeable future.
