TNAG-1611-FCO40-2214-Minutes-and-Hansards-of-the-Legislative-Council-of-Hong-Kong-1987 — Page 177

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Draft speech by Secretary for security

on Immigration Ordinance on/2.12.8

SECRETARY FOR SECURITY:

Sir,

I would like to thank my two hon. Friends

for their support for this motion, I too very much regret

its necessity.

Sir, I have fully taken the points that both

hon. Members have made and I can assure Members all hon.

Members that the efforts of the Hong Kong Government to

pursue solutions to the problems of refugees will not,

in any way, diminish. Our solutions are, of course,

resettlement in the short term and screening repatriation

of new arrivals in the long term, provided we can be

satisfied they will not be treated inhumanely on return.

Sir, I would like to take up my hon. Friend

Mr. Hui's two points about education and work in the

closed camps.

For many years now, we have in fact been

considering with the UNHCR and the voluntary agencies

concerned ways of improving the education of the Vietnamese

refugees children in the closed centres. Improvements

have in our view at any rate been introduced steadily

throughout the years as far as the education within the

camps is concerned. What we are now looking at is a

formal proposal from the UNHCR that the Vietnamese refugees

children in the closed centres should be educated in Hong

Kong schools outside the centres. On the face of it, this is

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