WHAT THE REFUGEES THINK
Who are these 9,076 refugees? situation?
How do they see their
It was difficult to find out. Few refugees speak Cantonese or English well, and interpreters were few and far between. We also sensed a reluctance among some refugees to speak openly in the presence of CSD staff.
However, it soon became clear that the refugees main concern is resettlement. Their dreams of leaving the camps and beginning a new life dominate their thinking. Concern over conditions in the camps comes a distant second.
It is also clear that the refugees who have arrived in the last few years are very different to those who fled persecution in 1979. They are Vietnamese (not Chinese), they are generally not highly skilled and they left Vietnam to look for better opportunities.
Conversations with refugees at Chi Ma Wan and Hei Ling Chau did produce some specific concerns. Young people found it difficult to study in the huts, we were told, and there was a lack of studying materials. Parents worried that their children had too much time on their hands.
The refugees agreed that Chi Ma Wan and Hei Ling Chau are much better than Vietnamese prisons and have improved significantly over the years. Still, they told us, the closed camps are prisons, and people living in them feel like prisoners.
In
One complaint we heard from many quarters was that when refugees are refused resettlement in a particular country they are often not told why they have been turned down. This is very disheartening, particularly when a refugee has been rejected a number of times but has no idea why. fact, many refugees are anxious about the whole way in which applications for resettlement are handled. They are told very little about what is going on, and have a feeling of powerlessness.
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