Background
1.
RAZ
on the closed
Mr Sims spoke in an adjournment debate refugee camps in Hong Kong in May 1985.
1985. His son worked in an open camp in 1984-85.
2. The question probably arises from persistent allegations in refugee agency circles in the UK that members of voluntary agencies proseltyise in the refugee camps, and that social welfare services are given in "exchange" for conversion. Subsequent investigations by the Hong Kong Government have revealed that one member of a Christian based voluntary agency had been proselytising in one of the closed camps; the person concerned was dismissed. An allegation that a proselytising pamphlet, issued by a Christian group and aimed at Buddhists, has been distributed in the camps has not been substantiated.
3. The Hong Kong Government last year carried out an analysis of the religions practised by all Hong Kong's 10,000-odd refugees with the following results:
PRIARX
Ancestral worship
4139
Buddhist
2243
Christian
1556
(of which 1285
Roman Catholic)
Islam/Taoist/
Animist
42
No religion professed 2059