OXFAM
樂施會 •
The overcrowding is not just a physical matter. The refugees are under considerable psychological pressure, having to live at such close quarters with total strangers. They spoke of mounting tension in the camp. World Relief's camp manager Michael Jakubisin agreed, and said: "This place could explode at any time."
Tuen Mun's population has almost doubled in the past year and facilities there are severely strained.
The possibility of extending the camp to provide six extra huts has been talked about for a long time. We are now told by government that the extension has been approved and that the necessary building work should be completed very early in 1988. It is important that this deadline is met.
Another plan being considered to ease overcrowding at Hei Ling Chau and Tuen Mun is to move some refugees to Chi Ma Wan, where, by government standards, there is some spare space. Since the refugees at Hei Ling Chau are from North Vietnam and those at Chi Ma Wan are from the South, this would mean an end to the policy of keeping North and South apart.
Given the bleak forecasts for resettlement and continuing arrivals, the government is wise to plan ahead and look for new sites. Cramming more and more refugees into the already overcrowded existing centres would be a recipe for disaster.
2. Education
Earlier this year the Executive Council asked the government to look into ways of improving the education of refugee children. This in turn led to the UNHCR being asked to prepare a proposal on integrating children from closed centres into local schools.
This is good news for two reasons. Firstly, it demonstrates official recognition that the present standard of education is not good enough. Secondly, allowing children out to study suggests there could be some flexibility in the closed centre policy.
But while the principle is attractive, could such a scheme work? We do not have details of the proposal, but it would seem to be fraught with difficulties - public acceptance, the added language burden of Cantonese, the separation of children from their families, and simple logistics.
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