:
PRESS RELEASE
J
Although Hong Kong can be justifiably proud of what
it has done for the 70,000 Vietnamese refugees who arrived last
year, the lessons learnt from the 1979 influx indicate that some
improvements in facilities should be made for those remaining
here awaiting resettlement in other countries.
This was the main conclusion reached following a
comprehensive in-house review of the arrangements made by the
Government for the care and maintenance of Vietnamese refugees.
The review was conducted by a group comprising Mr
Jan Lightbody, Chairman of the Public Service Commission; Profesecr
Michael Colbourne, Head of the Department of Community Medicine
at Hong Kong University; and Mr Brian Clancy, Deputy Crown Solicitor.
The group has confirmed that the arrangements made in
1979 to accommodate and look after the refugees were "appropriate
and adequate considering all the circumstances" and that, although
the facilities provided were necessarily basic, they met the--
essential requirements of health and safety.
In particular, the group considered the medical and
health care provided to the refugees to be "reasonable and the
best that could be offered without reducing services to Hong
Kong's own citizens to an unacceptable degree". Despite the
refugees' previous exposure to a hard life and the crowded living