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Vietnamese migrants urged to face reality
The Commissioner of Correctional Services, Mr Raymond Lai Ming-kee, today (Wednesday) urged Vietnamese migrants detained in Hong Kong to face the reality that having been screened out as refugees, their final destination was Vietnam.
Speaking at a Rotary Club lunch meeting, Mr Lai said the sooner the Vietnamese accept this, the sooner they could get on with their lives and put an end to the violence and escapes.
He said the Correctional Services Department would continue to carry out the task of looking after the Vietnamese migrants to the best of its ability.
"That task has become increasingly difficult as the nature of the Vietnamese migrant population has changed and when something go wrong, the focus is on us. For the most part, what we do goes unnoticed," said Mr Lai.
"We are facing a fundamental change in the type of person we are being asked to look after," he added.
The Commissioner said for the Vietnamese boat people who were misinformed that they could obtained a "ticket" to the West had spent six wasted years of their lives behind a fence because they did not qualify as refugees.
Children had been forced to grow up without the benefits of a normal childhood while their parents waited and hoped, only to face the awful reality that they had made a terrible mistake, he said.
Then along came someone to tell them that all might not be lost and not to believe what they were told about having to return to Vietnam.
With this, they started to hope again and were convinced that if they remain in Hong Kong long enough they would vindicate the decision which was made years ago.
They would resist, as strongly as they could, any measure to send them back to Vietnam, said Mr Lai.
"I will not question the motives of those who mislead the Vietnamese, though I personally can not see what benefit it is to anyone to persuade people to continue voluntarily a life behind barbed wire," said the Commissioner.
He pointed out that initially the Vietnamese migrants were content to sit and wait for screening.
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