TNAG-1180-FCO40-1482-Resettlement-of-Vietnamese-refugees-from-Hong-Kong-into-the--1982 — Page 4

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The refugees have been permitted to move about freely and to take temporary employment during their wait for resettlement. The exceptions to this arrangement are the arrival and departure camps which are managed by the staff of the Correctional Services Department of the Government, where more strict controls have been found to be necessary over the refugees' movement.

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Closed camps would be just that. The refugees confined there would not be allowed to work, or to go out for other reasons. There would be restrictions on visitors, etc. UNHCR would not be permitted to screen new arrivals automatically. Screening and resettlement would only be allowed at the Government's discretion and in selected cases.

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To reduce the opportunities for confrontation experienced at the Jubilee Reception Centre, and so far as possible, closed camps should not be in the urban area. most likely immediate site is the institution at Chi Ma Wan.

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The

A further deterrent feature would be to introduce segregation of the sexes in the closed camps. Men, women with children up to the age of 14, and teenagers could all be held in separate camps. Initially, this could be arranged by using Chi Ma Wan Upper Camp for male adults and Chi Ma Wan Lower Camp for female adults and their children. Male teenagers would be sent to Hei Ling Chau and young women would be sent to Tai Tam Gap Correctional Institution and Tai Lam Centre for Women. The deterrent value of such an arrangement would be strong, and would make the maintenance of law and order in such camps easier. This arrangement may give rise to claims of inhumane treatment, but on balance it seems that the advantage lies in favour of segregation.

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The object would be to hold refugees in Hong Kong until such time as their repatriation could be arranged, or until some other alternative emerges such as the end of the outflow from Vietnam which would enable a final resettlement scheme to be drawn up.

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The advantage of closed camps with segregation is deterrence and to show both in Hong Kong and internationally that a harder line is being taken with refugees. There are of course disadvantages:

(a)

such a scheme, backed by eventual repatriation, has not deterred some former Vietnamese

refugees already settled in China from entering Hong Kong illegally;

G.S. 166

CONFIDENTIAL # 2

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