The closed camp environment is destroying the traditional family unit. Food is provided centrally, so mothers cannot cook for their families. Clothes are distributed centrally, so people cannot choose what they want to wear. Authority rests with the CSD officers (many of whom are extremely young), and so the traditional parental role is being undermined.
There is little privacy. A family of five live in a bedspace 8ft by 6ft by 3ft, crammed in with all their belongings. A thin curtain separates them from the next family. This space may be the family's home for many months, even years, yet they cannot stand up in it. Hong Kong's prisoners can stand up in their cells.
Open Camps
Even
The two open camps are much dirtier than the closed camps. Jubilee, a former barracks, is particularly dark and run down - the government's Principal Assistant Secretary for Security, Ken Woodhouse, described the accommodation at Jubilee as "dreadful." (The government hopes to close Jubilee by the end of 1986. The refugees living there will be transferred to Kaitak) At Kaitak we noted a lack of lighting in some huts and many broken windows.
However, the refugees in the open camps have all been there for three and a half years or more, and have been able to settle in. There is an air of permanence. Many bedspaces are separated by lockable wooden partitions. These provide privacy but must also create problems with ventilation and pose a serious fire risk. Some of the refugees have bought their own furniture, and televisions and hi-fi systems have been installed in some bedspaces.
To put the camps in context, we also visited the government's transit centre in Tuen Mun, which provides temporary accommodation for people who have lost their homes in fires. The centre provides the basic facilities for everyday life, and the residents then care for themselves. The accommodation is comparable to that provided for refugees in open camps, without the ancillary facilities such as schools and clinics. The difference is that the average length of stay in the Transit Centre is two months.
-5-
F