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managing of centres for large numbers of people in a confined environment. We do not agree that any other department or voluntary agency has the requisite expertise.
As you know the majority of C.S.D. staff working in the closed centres are specially recruited and trained for refugee work. Although there are differences of culture and language between C.S.D. staff and the refugees, efforts have been and continue to be made to overcome these differences. Vietnamese language training courses are arranged for the C.S.D. Staff to facilitate communications within the centres. C.S.D. staff regularly meet with the hut representatives and voluntary agencies at the camp management level and C.S.D. headquarters personnel also regularly visit and hold discussions with hut representatives and the agencies. We cannot accept there is a significant gap between the refugees and C.S.D. beyond that which is inevitable in a situation of confinement between those confined and the representatives of the authority responsible for the confinement.
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As regards the open centre, we do not accept that there is a "significant crime problem" at Kai Tak. Certainly there are problems with a minority of the refugees who get into trouble as you describe, but the majority of the refugees are law-abiding.
There is no discrimination against refugees attending Government clinics or hospitals. Arrangements were made in consultation with the Director of Medical & Health Services last year for refugees to attend Government clinics and hospitals on the same basis and subject to the same charges as local residents. There may have been some confusion over these arrangements immediately after they were introduced in June 1987, but it should now be clearly established that refugees do not pay overseas visitors' rates for such facilities. If OXFAM (Hong Kong) is aware of any specific cases where refugees have been so charged, I should be yrateful if you would let me have details so that the situation can be rectified.
The proposal to allow refugee children from the open centre to compete for places in secondary schools outside the centre is being examined in the wider context of the proposals submitted by the UNHCR regarding the integration of refugee children in the local education system. It is already possible for refugee children to participate in local open examinations as private candidates.