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Dialogues began in 1991 for the establishing a regional co-operation in the port state control inspections in the Asia-Pacific region. The initiative was fully supported by IMO as well as the countries in the region.
Four preparatory meetings were then held and in November 1993, a Memorandum of Understanding, known as the Tokyo MOU, was agreed in Tokyo, Japan.
At the two previous meetings held under the Tokyo MOU, the delegates worked out the administrative details.
The third meeting in Hong Kong will be chaired by the Director-General of Marine Regulatory Directorate, Canadian Coast Guard and Chairman of the Committee, Mr Michael Hubbard,
End/Thursday, November 30, 1995
180 VMs transferred to Victoria Prison
At 8 pm, an operation in the High Island Detention Centre (HIDC) was still underway.
The operation started at 9.30 am this (Thursday) morning when police and Correctional Services Department (CSD) officers entered the camp to remove a group of Vietnamese migrants (VMs) selected for return to Vietnam on two orderly repatriation flights scheduled for December 6 and 13.
From the outset of the operation, passive resistance was encountered. About 400 VMs climbed onto the hut roofs while about 1,800 others gathered in the open space of the south section of HIDC. It took CSD officers three hours to remove the VMs from the roofs of eight huts in the extreme southern section of the centre.
Despite repeated calls by the officers to the assembled VMs, those selected for repatriation declined to come forward.
CSD officers then persuaded the group to move to another part of the centre. During this process, some of those selected for return were identified.
In the third phase of the operation, the VMs still on the rooftops were removed. Efforts were then made to identify the remaining VMs selected for repatriation.