TNAG-0911-FCO40-1121-Policy-on-housing-and-resettlement-in-Hong-Kong-1979 — Page 117

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PREMINARY REPORT ON THE SURVEY ON THE LIVING CONDITION OF THE BOAT PEOPLE IN YAUMATIC TYPHOON SHELTER,translated from Joint Comm.'s report

Introduction

In the recent years, boat people in Yaumati Typhoon shelter consistently plead to the government for the resettlement onshore as sinking of boats where they are were squattering happen often in typhoon seasons and the drowning of kids when they fell overboard are not uncommon. The joint committee of boat people living situation concerns launched a survey in November (on the 4th and 5th) in Yaumati shelter in order to get a clear picture on their living condition :

The survey includes 1) general information of the family i.e. no. of family member, jobs, education. 2) their case history, condition of leaking and typhoon precaution of the boats. 3) their demands.

Data were collected by means of filling in a set of structured questionnaire in an interview onboard the boats by interviewers. The data were processed by com- puter. Followings is their prelimary report.

1) LIVING CONDITION

474 households with altogether 4073 members were visited. The average number is 8-9 heads per family. The total no. of children below 14 was 1668 which was 41% of the population, and there was 4-5 children in each family.

By observation of the interviewers, majority of the living quarters were about 100 sq. ft. which included the kitchen, toilet, etc. The space is congested for an average family of 8-9. However, the absence of electrical power and water supply made the situation worse.

The children under 14 which constituted 41% of the population on board were lack of space for their recreation and suffered the risk of being drowned. Most of the kids were tied onboard the boats. It happened many cases that kids were drown to death. In short, the children were deprived from proper development, both physically and psychologically.

2) THE CONDITION OF STUDY AND WORKING ONSHORE

The working population in Yaumati squatters was 1256, 30.8% of the population surveyed. Among them 83.5% (1049) were working ashore, which was 25.7% of the population.

26% of the population, 1059 of them are having their schooling ashore. They have difficulty in daily transportations. The problem is getting worse in the time of typgoon. The students do not have proper place for study on their boats which make them hard to catch up with their study with other classmates. In general, their academic achievement are comparatively worse than non-boat people.

3) HISTORY OF THE BOAT PEOPLE

43% of the household been visited has been there for more than 10 years, 25% of them had been there for 7-9 years. This means 70% of the household had been there for 7 or more years. It shows that many of them had been stayed there for quite some time, before the reclamation in 1972. They are not 'illegal immigrants' that recently sneaked into the shelter as the government asserted.

The survey shown that 30.4% of the household moved in from Kowloon Bay. 20% of them came from other reclamation area. Only 3% of them were directly came from Mainalnd China. That shows many of the boat people there had been in Hong Kong for years and scattered in other areas. They moved into Yaumati Typhoon Shelter as their original site was reclaimed and the government has not pay any responsible for their resettlement and less to their demand for it.

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