OXFAM

樂施會

* Considering the recommendations of the inter-agency working group on vocational training and employment, and then working urgently towards the goal of ensuring that every adult refugee has some meaningful daily activity

* Easing the serious overcrowding at Hei Ling Chau and Tuen Mun and ensuring a better standard of accommodation which allows a family to live together in some privacy

* Handing over management of the centres to welfare agencies, with CSD fulfilling a 'minimum security' role

* Limiting the length of time a refugee can stay in a closed centre and giving the chance of earlier transfer to open accommodation for people who do well

We

The refugees constitute a persistent and complex problem for Hong Kong, and the system for processing them is grinding to a halt. Offers of resettlement are dwindling and people are being left to stagnate in the centres for years on end. need to get some movement back into the system, and that requires action by the resettlement countries and by Hong Kong.

While pursuing the long-term goal of repatriation for future arrivals, we should continue to lobby for more resettlement places for those people already here and to do everything we can to prepare these men, women and children for their new lives. This approach may not produce dramatic breakthroughs or spectacular progress in the near future, but it is a sensible and compassionate policy with which our society can feel comfortable. For Hong Kong as well as for the refugees, a calm, pragmatic and humanitarian approach is the best way forward.

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