CONFIDENTIAL
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Mrs. D.B. Lasan
(b)
(c)
(a)
8th November, 1982
quietly during the visit. This had a different effect upon the visitors than the one intended, but it certainly has never been a regular feature of the girl's regime at Tai Tam. The Investigation Unit has concluded that the reference to Prison Regulations, and the alleged refusal of the UNHCR offer to provide games for the girls, derive from the Superintendent's misunderstanding of Mr. Nietzman's comments to her. Certainly the reference to Prison Regulations makes no sense in this context; and there is no shortage of games provided by Correctional Services for the detainees at Tai Tam.
Complaint: the detainees are not allowed to write letters in Vietnamese:
The conclusion of the Investigation Unit on the issue is that, while no instruction was ever issued to the effect that letters could not be written in Vietnamese, the detainees may have believed this was the official position. They would probably not incline to question it: the girls already in Tai Tam when they arrived, being illegal immigrants from China, would all have been writing in Chinese. Supporting this theory is that they began writing letters in Vietnamese a week or so after they began receiving letters from the inmates of the Chi Ma Wan Closed Centre. Since then they have sent over 60 letters to Europe and America, and five to Vietnam.
Complaint: husbands were not permitted to visit until UNHCR interceded:
It has proved impossible to trace whose "husbands", if any, did write to the Superintendent to ask for a visit, except in one case where the girl has stated she did not pass on the request to the staff. I have put the word "husbands" in inverted commas because these relationships cannot be verified; certainly on first interview the Immigration Department recorded all of these girls as single and unattached. It is far from clear whether the girls formed these attachments before they arrived in Hong Kong, a point pursued further in my concluding paragraphs.
Complaint: detainees are not allowed to cry, and are punished if they do so:
The Investigation Unit has ascertained that most of these girls cry occasionally. Their age and circumstances should not make this surprising. None of the four girls who, when interviewed, claimed to have been punished for so doing can identify the staff responsible. I believe it is normal and reasonable to enjoin detainees against crying without reason; otherwise the generally disciplined framework of the closed centres is harmed. Equally, crying is not a matter for punishment; and the Commissioner of Correctional Services has reminded the staff accordingly.
CONFIDENTIAL
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