TNAG-1180-FCO40-1482-Resettlement-of-Vietnamese-refugees-from-Hong-Kong-into-the--1982 — Page 5

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(b)

(c)

(d)

where such a system has been introduced elsewhere, as in Thailand, it has not completely discouraged arrivals;

it would be difficult to maintain discipline and control in closed camps (c.f. the problems experienced in Kai Tak North camp in the first half of 1979 and more recently in Chi Ma Wan camp);

the burden involved in providing and running more and more camps (if refugees continued to arrive) would be a drain on resources.

The provision of closed camps would undoubtedly pose

It

a number of difficult, but not insuperable, problems. would be necessary to determine which Government organisation/ department should be made primarily responsible for this task, the management rules and disciplinary codes to be applied. The provision of medical and health services could be particularly difficult. Close control and supervision would prove costly in terms of staff. The dilemma we would face would be whether we could accept and apply standards low enough to be consistent with "deterrence", for by raising standards to those which the Administration might feel obliged to accept on the basis of its professional advice may well defeat the primary aim of deterring refugees from coming here. The implications of closed camps, therefore, need the most careful examination. A further report on these implications would be made if Members so advise, but some aspects are referred to below.

Resource Implications for Closed Camps Existing Sites

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It would obviously be quicker and therefore more satisfactory to establish closed camps in existing institutions rather than to construct new ones. One suitably remote institution already referred to is Chi Ma Wan. This is run by the Correctional Services Department as a detention camp under the Immigration Ordinance for ex-China Vietnamese pending their return to China. The combined capacity of the upper and lower

Ivumed camps at Chi Ma Wan is about 5,500 but this figure would have have to be to be reduced by around 50% if the advice of the Medical and

Health Department is adhered to strictly and if segregation is adopted. Hei Ling Chau could absorb 750 and the two existing womens institutions 250. Provided it is possible to devise a system of maximum utilisation of floor space in huts to take account of segregation and the requirements of the Medical and Health Department, these camps might cope with arrivals until about the end of the year.