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2.
3. The closed camps
CHI MA WAN, named "The Alcatraz of the boat-people" by a Swiss journalist: six-metre high gates, three in a row, topped on with barbed wire. Padlocked doors, uniformed guards. watchtowers, warning signs. Refugees are subject to searching, their mail is checked.
CHI MA WAN, again: huge dormitories, with hundreds of men, women and children sleeping in multi-level metal cages, one-metre long, one-metre high, two-metre deep, in a suffocating atmosphere, in spite of nights being sometimes cool.
Of course, the refugees don't lack food nor medical care. They can attend classes, and are allowed to play on the playgrounds of the camps. This cold, organized and planned misery is something more like a moral distress rather than a material destitution, conveyed by a dull future in barbed wires, since resettlement is a fading reality.
4. Position of the parties
On several occasions, the UNHCR made attemps to bring this tragedy to the attention of Western countries. But these attemps were in vain.
The United Kingdom, which is directly involved in the issue, made substantial efforts to resettle 19,000 Vietnamese refugees. Furthermore, the Government requested the international community to make a special effort in order to accept refugees from Hong Kong. In her address to the UNHCR Executive Committee, last October, Mrs Anne Warburton stated that ".... according to the reaction of other parties to the request of an international effort, the United Kingdom would be ready to explore the possibility of accepting other refugees in addition to those 550 already mentioned" (the United Kingdom has already decided to accept 550 Vietnamese refugees). "In the same way, Hong Kong would be ready to explore the possibility of integrating a reduced number of the refugees presently sheltered in its camps, provided that this be part of a concerted effort to substantially reduce the number of refugees in its camps".
During his exploratory trip to Hong Kong, last December, Dr. NGUYEN Phat, President of Ecoles Sans Frontières, met representatives from the UNHCR, the Hong Kong Government and the French Embassy. He concluded from these talks that, since the refugees can't stay forever in these camps, the Hong Kong authorities are willing to "open" the camps to representatives of third countries. The UNHCR fully supports voluntary agencies wishing to implement programmes which aim at preparing refugees with a view to resettlement.
It seems as though things were to change, and the policy of humane deterrence might soon relax a little bit.
5. Comments and suggestions
We are convinced that France, which has for long been an "Asylum country", won't ignore the call of the United Kingdom; France can't possibly ignore the dumb distress of thousands of young men and women closed in the camps, and thereby sign their future away.
But if France decides to accept these refugees, she must do it well. She must prepare their insertion thoroughly, in order to avoid the language barrier and the cultural shock. Hence the necessity of a language training and orientation programme in the camps.
We plan to implement such a programme in Chi Ma Wan and Hei Ling Chau refugee (closed) camps, in Hong Kong.
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Private notes are available after approval.