TNAG-1733-FCO40-2446-Minutes-and-Hansards-of-the-Legislative-Council-of-Hong-Kong-1988 — Page 247

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Any screened in as refugees will be accommodated in closed camps with other refugees. All those screened out as illegal immigrants will be

be detained pending repatriation to Vietnam. They will be held in the Hei Ling Chau Centre which will be vacated and adapted for this purpose in a few days' time. The detention centre will be manned by the Correctional Services Department.

Sir, there is no simple solution to the serious problem which confronts us, we recognise that we cannot

the solve it on our own and that introduction of screening is not the whole answer. But we feel most strongly that a stand must be taken here and now against the continuing outflow of boat people from Vietnam, the vast majority of whom have no claim to be treated as refugees in the normal internationally accepted sense.

A durable humanitarian way must be found of stopping these men, women and children from putting to sea in small boats in the hope of making a new life for themselves in Western countries. It is clear that these Western countries are no longer prepared to offer a new life to the numbers of people now leaving Vietnam. Nor should this tiny overcrowded territory be expected to provide a home for them, even if they wanted to stay here, and it is clear they do not.

We therefore urge the international community and the UNHCR to find an international solution to this international problem. Ways must be found of stopping this unhappy tide of humanity from continuing to flood from the shores of Vietnam.