DRAFT
of the British Embassy in Hanoi. The main responsibilities of
the unit are to ensure the smooth running of the Orderly
Repatriation Programme (including paying home visits to ORP
returnees) and to administer the Hong Kong-funded projects
scheme. Mr Ho does not perform "a Hong Kong Immigration
Officer investigatory function, as a back-up support
operation to the screening of asylum seekers." Indeed, there
is no operational requirement for the Hong Kong seconded
officer to be from the Immigration Service.
The Embassy occasionally approach the appropriate
Vietnamese government departments at the request of the Hong
Kong government to verify documents such as household
registrations, marriage/divorce certificates or academic
certificates or to check facts relating to ORP cases. The
particular visit was an extension of this function arising
out of a request from Hong Kong that some simple family data
be checked with family members because of a variety of claims
made in a judicial review proceeding. But such enquiries
should not be construed as investigatory functions of a Hong
Kong Immigration Officer. It would be quite wrong to say that
the Embassy, through Mr Ho or anyone else, undertakes
screening interviews in Vietnam.
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