WORK, TRAINING AND EDUCATION
Refugees cannot leave the closed camps to seek employment or training, and rely on voluntary agency-organised work and training schemes for most of their occupations. Social workers stress the importance of recognised vocational training and other cultural reorientation programmes. Ann Marie Tran, a Vietnamese social worker who for many years helped newly arrived refugees resettle in the United States, says such such programmes are invaluable both in increasing chances for resettlement and giving people a fair start in their new lives.
EMPLOYMENT
The CSD employs some people to clean the camps, work at the dock, in the kitchens,in the laundry. These workers are paid a maximum of HK$ 150 (US$ 20) per month, and no refugee employed by other agencies may be paid more than this.
Refugees are employed as teachers in camp schools and adult language programmes, and are paid by voluntary agencies.
Several of the refugees in the camps have medical, engineering and other professional qualifications or skills, but they are not permitted to excercise them. Prisoners are shipped in from Hong Kong's prisons to do construction work incamps which house hundreds of unoccupied and able-bodied men. The government says it must protect itself from charges of exploiting refugee labour.
Hong Kong suffers a labour shortage, and a working group of representatives from welfare agencies, UNHCR and the CSD believes that refugees from closed camps could be integrated into the colony's workforce. In a report published in January 1988, the group says "The Save the Children Fund has had several contractors approach them requesting use of reugees within their existing factories... They have offered to provide transportation and use their factories as extensions of the closed centre." (appendix B)
Some piece-work -- embroidery, assembly of toys and circuit board --is imported to the camps, and social workers believe that such programmes could be greatly increased. They propose that refugees be paid a minimum wage and make some contribution to their upkeep. The government cites administrative and logistical problems.
The refugees say they would welcome any work that would give purpose to their days. "This life is very boring. I only know how to wait for Chinese staff to deliver bad food every day...! don't dare hope and believe in myself,” wrote one young man who has spent four years in Chimawan closed camp. With no incentive to use time well, it becomes an effort not to join the 'bad element" "I am trying to find a way of killing time, yet a way of using it honestly," writes Truong Van Hien. (letter 2).
The joint working committee report found "The closed camps still do not provide useful training and employment for most of the residents. At Tuen Mun...(there is) a waiting list of 200 for the industrial programme."
TRAINING
Camps have voluntary training programmes, where people can develop skills such as carpentry, typing and sewing. There is little or no formal recognition of time spent on these projects. Psychologists working with refugees say documents certifying achievement and recording time spent in training programmes would boost morale immeasurably.
Adult language classes, taught by volunteers and refugees, are well-attended. Teachers suggest presenting students for internationally recognised exams such as the Cambridge Certificate. Cultural organisations such as the Alliance Francaise have volunteered to prepare students and administer language exams.
The United States runs an extensive cultural reorientation programme at Bataan in the Philippines, attended by all refugees accepted by the U.S. Intergovernmental Committee for Migration official Alfred Kottek said other countries should be encouraged to step up reorientation programmes. "Without back-up from resettlement countries, the preparation given to refugees in Hong Kong is inadequate," he said in an interview.