TNAG-1427-FCO40-1910-Vietnamese-refugees-in-Hong-Kong-general-1986 — Page 70

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134 Blindmans Lane

Cheshunt

EN8 9DH

Herts

28 November 1985

1KK.243/5

RECEIVED IN REGISTRY

02 JAN 1983

DESK OFFICER

INDEX

MA

Ms Marion Roe, MP

c/o The Conservative Club

Eleanor Road

Waltham Cross

Enfield

Herts

Dear Marion Roe

VIETNAMESE CAMPS IN HONG KONG and PURCHASE OF BRITISH PASSPORTS

I have recently visited Hong Kong on holiday as a guest of a family not just a tourist staying in a hotel. I had the opportunity to go into the Jubilee Vietnamese Transit Camp to work for one morning with the playgroup for young children. Physically the children are lovely - they have sturdy limbs and most are bright-eyed despite the fact that I am told each family, however large, has only one BUNK as its territory not a room! They queue eagerly to come into the playgroup each day. Unfortunately, the playgroup helpers could not go into the camp on the second week of my visit as mumps were abounding.

-

This particular camp is an OPEN one.

The men

can go out to work, and visitors are allowed in. The playgroup is run by British and other expatriots to help them learn English as a second language. I am not sure if the women can leave. You and I, as women, certainly couldn't face such an existence.

What really concerns me about the whole scene is that this camp has been open for 8 years. It was one of the first, if not the first, and it is called a 'Transit' camp so what are those people still doing there. The children have been born in that camp.

I am

The women and children have no potential to develop into worthy citizens when their environment and horizons are so limited. told there has been one murder and several rapes inside the camp.