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VM saga is coming to a close: CSD Commissioner
The Commissioner of Correctional Services, Mr Raymond Lai Ming-kee, has given an assurance to implement the wishes of the international community in ensuring that all screened-out Vietnamese migrants are returned to their home.
Speaking at a lunch meeting of the Rotary Club of Kowloon, Mr Lai noted that with the last of the Vietnamese from Tai A Chau now having moved to Whitehead Detention Centre (WHDC), this long, often sad, sometimes uplifting saga was coming to a close.
The commissioner said the policy of detaining Vietnamese migrants and repatriating those who were deemed to have left for economic reasons was here to stay. "And it will continue until the last screened-out Vietnamese migrant has returned to Vietnam," he said.
"The job of managing these people has changed over the years and, in particular, how the Correctional Services Department (CSD) intends to face up to the challenge of managing the last batch of Vietnamese in the territory."
He said the management of VMs would continue much the same way as it used to by allowing them to live together as a community, providing them with food, lodging services and with the CSD doing the policing. "And we do our best," he said.
"We have been accused of managing the detention centres through the thugs and criminal elements who are unfortunately a part of any community.
"Such an accusation surfaces from time to time, and we have got used to it."
"It is almost as if the accusers, realising there is nothing new to say, drag out
this tired old story, dust it off, and wave it around as 'news'.
"In addition to being boring, it displays a woeful lack of understanding on the part of its propagators. Or may be not, if they think it serves their interest and there is still a market for it," the commissioner noted.
"Long service has taught all of us in the corrections business that unless the authorities are the 'top dog', someone else will be. And once someone else gains the ascendancy, then the ability to run the institutions is destroyed."