4. Chronology
Yaumati boat people struggle for resettlement
1977
27th May
A group of boat people from Yaumati went to the District Office at Yaumati asking for resettlement in Transit Camps as further decay of their boats made their situation very alarming. Moreover, the typhoon season was on hand. The District Office replied that it would further the matter to the proper department.
June to August
A provisional boat-people committee was formed.
5th Sept
Went back to the District Office to collect information and got the reply that there was no help. They had to stay where they were. The boat people decided to step up their action.
15th Sept
A press conference was held in which the boat people appealed to the government not to wait till their situation worsened and developed into a major disaster.
16th Sept
Several hundreds of boat people dramatized their action by presenting a broken boat to the Public Works Department.
23th Sept
Hard pressed, the head of the Housing Department, Mr. Scott sent a written reply saying that if the boat on which they lived has become too old and the people would probably become homeless then the government would consider ther case separately to allocate them to Transit Camps.
29th Sept
The boat people petitioned to the Marine Department asking to have their boats examined.
13th Oct
A group of boat people numbering one hundred delivered a letter con- tained in an enormous envelope to the Housing department asking to be allocated to the Transit Camp at Cheung Sai Wan. But the government would only allocate them to Tun Mun, a new town far away from Yaumati. The go- vernment with the help of a section of the press played up the unwilling- ness of the Yaumati boat people to move to Tun Mun as a proof of the suit- ability of their living conditions.
1st Nov
to
The government, through the district office replied the boat people that their boats were quite safe.
16th Nov
Fourth petition by boat people. Sixty of them went to the Office of the Chief Secretariat. On the same day, Scott, head of the Housing De- partment refused allocation to the Transit Camps at Cheung Sai Wan.
19th Nov
Fifth petition. Five stayed overnight in front of the office of the Chief Secretariat.
29th Nov
An official of the Housing Department claimed that the boat people were trying to jump the queue, that is, the queue of people waiting to be admitted to public housing. It takes seven to ten years before one is admitted.
13th Dec
Students from the Hong Kong University delivered to the Chief Secre- tariat more than 400 letters, signed by students of the University, in suport of the demands of the Yaumati boat people.
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