TNAG-1418-FCO40-1901-Hong-Kong-Parliamentary-Sub-Committee-on-Race-Relations-and--1985 — Page 141

report.

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4.

X

Family reunion (paras 11-17). The recommendation that family

reunion criteria be relaxed will be welcome to Hong Kong, and should

encourage a more flexible approach on the part of the Home Office.

5. The Camps in Hong Kong (paras 18-27). This is the we ake st

section of the report. It acknowledges that "there is some evidence

that the closed camps may have acted as a deterrent" (para 20), and

that "the reasons for introducing the closed camps are

understandable" (para 21), yet recommends that the closed camps be

abolished and their inmates be transferred to open camps, with little attempt to justify the discrepancy between evidence and

recommendation. It does not fully examine the likely consequences of implementing this recommendation: the obvious difficulty that

such a measure might actually encourage further arrivals i s not

mentioned. Apparently anticipating our likely rejection of this

recommendation, the report then recommends that we should put on

record the circumstances in which we would withdraw Our sanction

from the closed camp policy (para 23).

on

They feel

6.

For the reasons stated in the policy paper which I submitted

18 April, I can see no grounds for asking the Hong Kong Government to end the closed camp policy in present circumstances.

very strongly that this policy of deterrence must continue, and are

firmly backed on this by the Hong Kong public. Our response to the

second recommendation will probably need to follow the line we have

previously taken, ie that we do not envisage relaxing the closed

camp policy until the outflow from Vietnam reduces to a trickle.

The recommendation in para 25, that more be done to prepare refugees for life after they are resettled, especially through training and upgrading of skills, is reasonable, and coincides with

the recommendation in paragraph 1(c) of my submission of 18 April

Satisfactory implementation of the recommendation will depend on the

cooperation, both practical and financial, of UNHCR.

8.

Paragraph 26 addresses solutions other than resettlement. The

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