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centre. It will be funded by UNHCR (total cost US$40,000) and will be run by the World Relief voluntary agency. It should be operational by mid-1985. Its purpose will be to
prepare Vietnamese refugees for overseas resettlement by teaching them basic manufacturing skills and use of simple machinery, and simultaneously
simultaneously to alleviate boredom while
they wait for resettlement, thus reducing the likelihood of
friction and violence. However there are no opportunities
for employment in the closed centres. (Open centre
refugees are of course free to seek outside employment).
It might be possible for some kind of optional but paid
work to be made available within the centres, in the same
way as it is in Hong Kong's prisons. Nine percent of the
refugees who have arrived since the introduction of the
closed centre policy have described themselves as skilled
or semi-skilled labourers, and many of the rest should be
able to perform simple tasks.
Future of the Closed Centres
25. For
reasons discussed in Section III above, the Hong Kong Government believe that the closed centre policy must regretfully
continue at least until such time as the flow of new arrivals has
substantially reduced. We have examined in Section VI (A) above ways
it is reduced in which we might try to reduce it. Unless this happens, and unless
a significant increase in the rate of departure can be achieved, by
any of the ways discussed in Section VI (B), several thousand
refugees are likely to remain in closed centres for some years to
come. The question arises whether changes should be made
closed centre
SA
centre regime to deal with the humanitarion and legal
problems identified in paragraph 6 above. Hong Kong have already
as the BRC recogns. implemented some proposals of the British Refugee Council port for "Behind Barbed Wire", December 1984) (examples?). The training
schemes discussed in para 24 (d)(ii) above could also help solve some
of the social, psychological and humanitarian problems. But we
might also:
(i)
Examine whether there are other improvements that might
be made in the quality of life in the centres (while
recognising the deterrent purpose of the centres): closed
centre policy);
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