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projects which had been chosen as the targets of the main fundraising efforts.
The Committee warmly welcomed this initiative and would support the cmapaign in whatever way possible. Further details of the campaign
were available from the BRC or from UNA itself.
8.
REFUGEES IN HONG KONG
Julia Meiklejohn (Refugee Action) had just returned from Hong Kong where she had been with Lord Chitnis, Chairman of Refugee Action and Mrs. Minh Phuoc, a member of the Council, to visit the refugee camps there. They had visited all the camps except for Argyll Transit camp and Cape Collinson which was about to be closed down.
She reported that although the open camps had been fairly depressing just because they were camps, at least people were free to move in and out and to attempt to lead normal lives. The closed camps, however, were much more disturbing. She explained that what made them so bad was the combination of a number of factors, none of which were in themselves insuperable. In particular, she drew attention to the following points:
(a) the closed camps are amazingly small and crowded, with barbed wire extremely noticeable;
(b) the number of prison services staff is overwhelming it was nearly impossible ever to be out of sight of someone in uniform;
(c) the refugees have no control over even the smallest day to day matters in the camps which has had a long-term effect on the whole atmosphere in the camps and on the attitudes of the refugees living there;
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(d) there are a vast number of petty rules and very little in the way of information from outside no newspapers etc.
not true
She reported that the first refugees from the closed camps had now arrived in the UK as part of the new family reunion programme and that behaviour had been noticeably different from those from opencentres. They had shown an aggressive attitude towaqrds authority and spent their time sitting passively in their rooms. In Hong Kong, they had found a lack of understanding about the kinds of effects that conditions in the closed camps are likely to have on the residents.
She stressed that there were particular ways in which the closed camps could be made more humane and that it was essential for the British and Hong Kong Governments to face up to and tackle the residual problem of the Vietnamese refugees in Hong Kong. Unless the British Government was prepared to take a lead on this it was unlikely that any other western countries contribute to the solution of the problem. range of support had been shown at a recent particularly by US agencies who would initiative taken by the British agencies.
would do any more to It was noted that a wide ICVA meeting in New York, be willing to support any