CONFIDENTIAL
3
Disadvantages
Comment
ships would need some modification, unless we were prepared to be really callous.
There would be crewing difficulties : if regulations required us to have a master and crew aboard, they would be highly vulnerable.
Detainees would need to be disembarked during typhoons, which would require shore backup facilities, and provide an opportunity for escape.
We would have to be ready to accept unchecked lawlessness below decks, high fire risk and a correspondingly high likelihood of casualties, and almost certain criticism for running "prison hulks". The vessel might be deliberately stranded, as "Skyluck" was.
UNHCR would probably require us to meet cost of rationing.
this would be a difficult option to implement and is not typhoon proof. It could also backfire : the jolt to world consciousness would probably bring us some criticism without necessarily increasing international help. Not really a starter.
(a) Confine all boat-arrivals on a remote holding point,
preferably an island, and contain them there with only rudimentary facilities, to fend for themselves.
Advantages
Disadvantages
this could be a most effective deterrent, in providing conditions no better than life in Vietnam.
It would be cheap in terms of equipment and facilities, and would keep the problem at a distance from the Hong Kong public.
inconvenience and cost of transporting staff and stores.
CONFIDENTIAL
/Considerable