The Hong Kong authorities faced enormous difficulties last summer when boat people were arriving, sometimes at over 1,000 per day. Some 34,000 arrived in 1989. The fact that they were all given food and shelter is a great credit to the Hong Kong authorities.
Since last summer, conditions in the camps have improved considerably: new accommodation is now becoming available and boat people are being moved from temporary accommodation to purpose-built accommodation. There are no more boat people on ferries.
There is still over-crowding in some of the camps although this is being reduced. There have also been interfactional disturbances. All this underlines the urgency of emptying the camps as quickly as we can and preventing them from refilling.
MELACF