TNAG-0911-FCO40-1121-Policy-on-housing-and-resettlement-in-Hong-Kong-1979 — Page 41

JCO

SOCIETY FOR COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION

香港社區組織協會

L

JLAUG 2012 630/+ZWEN YW: 3-039165 3/FL. 52. PRINCESS MARGARET RD, HOMANTIN, KLN, H. K. TEL 039165

YOUR REF:

OUR REF:

Mr. Ben Ford, M.P.

House of Commons

London SW1

ENGLAND

DATE: 9th March, 1979..

Dear Mr. Ford,

Thanking very much for your effort in raising questions concerning the boat people and their arrest, and the subsequent reply from the Minister of State at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office. We appreciate very much for your concern over the disadvantaged people in Hong Kong.

But I wish to draw your attention to the following points that the Govern- ment of HongKong did not reveal :

1)

2)

3)

That the boat people did not firmly demand for resettlement in government public housing, they simply asked for resettlement on land, and they even will agree if they are housed in Temporary Housing Areas ( in which they have to build their own houses) or Transit Camps (which houses nearly a hundred persons under one roof).

The problem is not, with the boat people's demand in 'jumping the queue', but with the environmental danger that exists inside the typhoon shelter. Some children got drown (although most of them were save by their parents or relatives), and during typhoon seasons, because of the lack of telephones and transportation vehecles, the sick have to wait until the typhoon is over if they have to be hospitalised. And now, the typhoon season is coming again, probably by June this year. The boat people demonstrators in 1977 had told the government " not to convert danger into catastrophy" for the residents. But the government did not reply positively. Now the boat people are becoming more anxious about the coming typhoon season.

The Hong Kong government is often criticised as having a massive building programme but no housing policy to resettle the most urgently needed group. The boat people complained that unless more babies were drown, the government will still not pay attention to the urgency of their problem.

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