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HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL 5 July 1989
33 000 strong. After a lapse of one and a half months, their number has now drastically jumped to some 47 000, representing an increase rate of 42%. Almost 20 000 Vietnamese boat people arrived in Hong Kong in the months of May and June alone. If the boat people keep flooding in at the present rate, their number will have reached 80 000 by the end of September. Our disciplinary forces and other facilities will definitely not be able to cope with the situation. Take the newly assigned detention centre for Vietnamese boat people on Soko Islands for instance, law and order and environmental hygiene on the islands are appallingly poor. Apart from the lack of facilities, the boat people there have out-numbered the management staff by a very large margin. Inevitably, management of that centre has become extremely difficult.
Another thing that greatly worries me is that the Government has planned to establish another detention centre with a capacity of 7 000 inmates at the High Island Reservoir in Sai Kung to house future Vietnamese boat arrivals who are expected to crash our gate in great numbers. Sai Kung is one of the rare scenic spots in Hong Kong and should therefore never be used as a site for setting up a detention centre for the boat people. Besides, the proposed detention centre is very close to the High Island Reservoir. The disposal of wastes and sewage for 7 000 boat people is bound to create a serious problem and cause pollution to potable water supplied by the reservoir, thus posing a threat to the health of the local population. This is indeed a worrying problem.
In addressing the Vietnamese boat people issue, the Foreign Affairs Committee report agrees in principle that mandatory repatriation of boat people screened out as non-refugees is a solution to the problem. As similar views have earlier on been put forth by Britain, this is no fresh point in the FAC recommendations as the people of Hong Kong have already learnt of it. The FAC report states that it should be made absolutely clear to the United States Government that while she remains unalterably opposed to the forced repatriation of Vietnamese stranded at all ports of first asylum, it must accept the responsibility either for their resettlement or for their accommodation pending voluntary repatriation. There is, however, no mention of any specific details concerning the ways and timing of implementing these proposals. They are nothing more than empty words. Hence, I feel very disappointed and I am doubtful about the sincerity of Britain in this respect.
In the international conference on refugees in Geneva in 1979, Britain reached an agreement with other attending countries to turn Hong Kong into one of the ports of first asylum for Vietnamese refugees. Over the past decade, Britain has failed to discharge her responsibility in the handling of the Vietnamese boat people problem. Britain has ignored the interest of the Hong Kong people and gone against their wishes. Her reluctance to play an active role in finding a solution to the boat people problem is indeed a totally irresponsible behaviour.
The FAC report also admits that a large majority of the Vietnamese boat people are no victims of political persecution. They flee their mother country just because of