BACKGROUND NOTE
BOAT DWELLERS IN HONG KONG
1. Hong Kong has always had a large floating population, most of whom are fishermen, but including also a great many involved in cargo handling. The numbers have declined steadily over the past 30 years as people who have worked afloat for generations have taken jobs ashore. Between 1960 and 1978, some 80,000 boat dwellers were resettled by the Hong Kong Government in public housing estates. In the same period the number of boats in shel- tered anchorages dropped from approximately 7,800 to 2,400.
2. The main problem now is with squatters people who, unable to obtain suitable accommodation ashore, live, without authoris- ation, on boats moored in the various typhoon shelters around Hong Kong. They fall into three categories:-
3.
(a) immigrants from China who arrive in their own boats.
and continue to live on them until they can be
resettled ashore;
(b) traditional Hong Kong boat people who, although
they have now taken jobs ashore, continue to live on their boats for want of other accommodation; (c) Hong Kong land dwellers who have resorted to boats
as a cheap form of accommodation.
The policy of the Hong Kong Government towards the boat squat- ters is exactly the same as towards land squatters: to tolerate them until they can be moved into suitable public housing (see paras 4 and 5 below for details of the public housing programme). However, the boats on which they live are liable to examination from time to time, and if they are found to be in a dangerous condition, the occupants are moved to temporary housing ashore. Since 1977, 922 people from 111 boats found to be in a dangerous condition have been rehoused.. Apart from this, the Government believe that there is no justification for giving the boat people priority over other applicants for government housing, and they have therefore been advised to apply individually for public
housing in the normal way.
/Housing Policy
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