TNAG-1425-FCO40-1908-Vietnamese-refugees-in-Hong-Kong-general-1985 — Page 54

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Speech by the Secretary for Security in Legislative Council, on Wednesday,

15 May, 1985

Adjournment Debate on the Vietnamese Refugee

Problem in Hong Kong

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Ms Walker

175

I am most grateful to Honourable Members for their confirmation of the Hong Kong Government's policies in respect of Vietnamese Refugees and for their general support for the way Hong Kong Government is implementing them.

Mr. HO Kam-fai has set out clearly the background history and Mrs. Chow has set out clearly why we had to introduce our closed centre policy, This policy has, we are sure, been successful; but it has, inevitably I suppose, come in for some criticism. As it happens, in the past few days the Commissioner of the United States Immigration and Naturalisation Service and some of his staff, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and some of his staff have visited some of our closed centres.

While, like us, they may deplore the need for them, they had no criticisms of the way in which they were being run. This moment is perhaps an appropriate one in which to congratulate the staff of the Correctional Services Department for the effective way in which they manage these centres.

It is also an appropriate moment for me to convey, once again, our profound thanks to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the staff of his offices for the very great help they have given Hong Kong in respect of refugees from Vietnam. And equally, I would like to thank the Governments of the United States, Canada and Australia,in particular, for their continued interest in resettling the refugees.

In brief, we will be passing Members' comments and proposals in this debate to the appropriate authorities. Basically, they are all in keeping with the Hong Kong Government's policies (which leads me to Mr. Allen LEE's four questions) and many are already being implemented.

/Mr. LEE'S