TNAG-0883-FCO40-1093-Refugees-from-Vietnam-in-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-boat-people-1979 — Page 95

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CONFIDENTIAL

機密

ANNEX B TO XCC(79)26

THE USE OF SHIPS FOR DETENTION

PURPOSES FOR REFUGEES

There are, at the moment, a number of vessels laid up in Hong Kong waters and it is conceivable that these could be used to house refugees. Details of these vessels and their status as at 9th March 1979 are attached (Appendix). It will be noted that only small vessels could be reasonably regarded as currently available although the advantages and disadvantages below have been listed on the assumption that larger vessels will become available.

The advantages of adopting such a course would

be:

(a)

(b)

(c)

scarce land would not be needed on which to erect accommodation and consequent problems of requisition, delay in land sales programme, postponement of development plans etc would not arise;

buildings and the provision of services to camps would not be required;

refugees would be isolated from the general public;

(d)

access would be easy to control;

(e)

the number of guards would be lower than that required at a land camp because escape would be more difficult;

(f)

public would probably favour this option because it would be seen as representing a tough line towards refugees.

The disadvantages seem to be:

(a)

(b)

the ships are not designed to accommodate the thousands of refugees which would be desirable to make this a viable proposition;

substantial modification would be required

to the internal divisions of the ships, thus increasing fire risk, to enable refugees to be accommodated;

CONFIDENTIAL

機密