CONFIDENTIAL
in essence the same as those set out in paragraph 4 above under Option 1.
6.
Stopping short of releasing all detainees pending screening, it would mitigate potential breach of the ICCPR if the detention period before screening were reduced to an acceptable time. Those not screened within the limit would have to be released. Currently there is a two year waiting list for screening. Screening itself takes 6-8 weeks. Hong Kong Government estimate that to cut the waiting time by half, ie to 12 months (which may not even then be considered acceptable), would cost approximately an additional £5 million per year. Hong Kong doubt that LegCo would approve the additional funds unless mandatory repatriation had already been introduced. Nor does additional funding from the UK Government seem politically feasible.
3. Making Hong Kong's policy watertight
7. FCO and Hong Kong Legal Advisers agree that there is no way to make a policy of detention absolutely watertight (it will be for local judges to determine whether detention is lawful). But that Hong Kong's amendments as now proposed
offer the best solution available. In summary, those
amendments are:
(a) in the case of detention pending screening, a new provision to require the court to have regard to all the circumstances, including the number of people screened, the resources available. These elements are important to Hong Kong Government's ability to defend the length of detentions but, without these amendments, a judge's natural inclination might be to consider only the circumstances of the individual. Hong Kong doubt that in practice courts would comment adversely on the resources available unless those resources were manifestly inadequate, which they do not
RIDAJO/4
CONFIDENTIAL