CAMP LIFE
IDENTIFICATION
Each man, woman and child arriving is assigned a boat number and an individual camp number. This is used instead of their name on all files, in daily administrative procedures and to summon individuals on the tannoy system.
ACCOMODATION
Corrugated steel huts built for 200 now house up to 290 people on three levels of bunks. Each familly is alotted a space of 8 ft x 6ft x 3 ft which they curtain off with blankets for privacy.
There are large doors at either end of the huts, which are electrically lit. Electric fans ventilate top and middle bunk levels. Lower bunks are unventilated. Hut residents say fans work only infrequently. There is no heating in the huts.
HYGIENE.
In Chimawan closed camp, there is one male and one female toilet for every 150 people. Showers are inadequate. "More than 2000 people live in that camp, and every morning, in the early hours, we are only allowed 10 minutes of hot water. It is fortunate that refugees never fought over scarce hot water" (letter 1). Cold showers are available all day.
HEALTH
Clinics operate in each of the camps Monday-Friday from 10-4. They are run by the CSD, "very fierce employees" in the words of one refugee. Poor sanitary conditions contribute to their heavy workload, and refugees sometimes wait days to be seen. Reliable sources said those taken ill at night or at weekends are ignored "The CSD will only do something if they are afraid you will die. Dead refugees make them look bad."
in Hei Ling Chau and Chi Ma Wan
Those needing hospital care are taken to Hong Kong island and confined in a local prison before and after treatment. The qualified doctors among the regugees at Chimawan closed camp are not allowed to practice.
All health care and medicines are provide free of charge by the government. Pregnant women are given an egg daily, and an extra chicken wing ration weekly.
Family planning counciling is limited, although contraceptives are available for those who ask. The birth rate inside the camps is almost 3 times Hong Kong's average.