report.
4.
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Family reunion (paras 11-17).
The
recommendation that family
reunion criteria be relaxed will be welcome to Hong Kong, and should
encourage a more flexible approach on the part of the Home Office.
5. The Camps in Hong Kong (paras 18-27). This is the we ake st
section of the report. It acknowledges that "there is some evidence
that the closed camps may have actel
a deterrent" (para 20), and
that "the reasons for introducing the closed camps are
understandable" (para 21), yet recommends that the closed camps be
abolished and their inmates be transferred to open camps, with little attempt to justify the discrepancy between evidence and
recommendation. It does not fully examine the likely consequences
of implementing this recommendation: the obvious difficulty that
such a measure might actually encourage further arrivals
mentioned. Apparently anticipating our likely rejection of this
recommendation, the report then recommends that we should put on
record the circumstances in which we would withdraw Our sanction
from the closed camp policy (para 23).
is not
on
5. For the reasons stated in the policy paper which I submitted
18 April, I can see по grounds for asking the Hong Kong Government
to end the closed camp policy in present circumstances. They feel
very strongly that this policy of deterrence must continue,
and are
firmly backed on this by the Hong Kong public. Our response to the
second recommendation will probably need to follow the line we have
previously taken, ie that we do not envisage relaxing the closed
camp policy until the outflow from Vietnam reduces
to a trickle.
7. The recommendation in para 25, that more be done to prepare
refugees for life after they are resettled, especially through
training and upgrading of skills, is reasonable, and coincides with
the recommendation in paragraph 1(c) of my submission of 18 April
Satisfactory implementation of the recommendation will depend on
cooperation, both practical and financial, of UNHCR.
8. Paragraph 26 addresses solutions other than resettlement.
The
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