No_4_November_and_December__1952 — Page 5

THE SQUATTER PROBLEM IN HONG KONG

}

INTRODUCTION

IN

N spite of all the publicity that has been given to the matter it is safe to say that the majority of the residents of Hong Kong have no idea of the extent and the signi- ficance of the so-called squatters' problem. If they think about the matter at all it is only to dismiss it with the thought that the squatters were refugees from China who had no business to be in Hong Kong. As a matter of fact, although a large percentage of them contribute nothing towards the Colony's economy, by far the greater majority are, or can be, useful citizens of Hong Kong. It would probably surprise many to know that included in the squatters are Hong Kong born residents who are working and sup porting their families and are there- fore useful members of society but who just simply cannot afford the rents which they have to pay in the legitimate quarters that may be available to them. A proportion of the squatters are immigrants, artisans and tradesmen, who had some means and some substance, but who have not yet managed to find a place for themselves in the scheme of things here and in the meantime have to provide for them selves and their families and prefer to squat in order to conserve their resources. They have become squat ters in order to have a roof over their

Type of squatters huts now being built.

head, or in order to be near to their work and so save the cost of trans- port. Included in their number are also local residents with flats or legitimate residences but who have been able to sub-let these flats on advantageous terms and who have squatted in order to be able to use this rent to augment their income.

There are also two classes of squatters which present special pro- blems of their own. The first is the speculator who is trying to take advantage of the unnatural situation to reap a profit for himself and he does this by building shacks and ramshackle structures and renting or selling them illegally for a big profit, and then there is the genuine refugee who has come to Hong Kong either in search of a livelihood or in order to avoid working else where. They have no resources of any kind and are, at the present time and might possibly be permanently, a charge on the Colony.

In any case the problem cannot be dismissed by a mere shrug of the shoulders or by saying that these people have no right in the Colony, therefore we have no business to do anything to assist them. It is too late to say now that we should never have allowed them to come into the Colony at all, that immigration restrictions should have been imposed a long time ago in order to prevent the congestion of population

3

which is the cause of our squatter problem. The fact remains that over 300,000 people, about 15% of the total population of the Colony, are living illegally, haphazardly and hazardously under conditions which are a constant danger to themselves and to the Colony generally. At the present they are a liability, but a strong feeling has developed that this liability can be converted into a very definite asset and it is with this end in view that the Government is taking strong and active measure to remedy the situation. After making a complete survey of the situation the Government course of action has been decided upon and it is the purpose of this article to explain what this action is and how it will benefit not only the squatters them- selves but the Colony of Hong Kong.

We acknowledge the very kind, very considerable assistance rendered us in the preparation of this article by Mr. J. T. S. Wakefield, who, as the Assistant Social Welfare Officer at the time, was entrusted with the very arduous task of preparing the survey of the squatters' problem. We also acknowledge that we have drawn very freely upon the compre- hensive information included both in a radio broadcast and in subsequent newspaper articles prepared by the Hon. K. M. A. Barnett, the Chair- man of the Urban Council. Before the war, but in 1947, probably

Page 5Page 6