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291055 :AM-HONGKONG-REFUGEES
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REFUGEE WORKERS IN HONG KONG TO PRESS LONDON FOR ACTION
By Chris Peterson
on them PA
46
HONG KONG, March 29, Reuter The British government and Princess Anne are being urged to take action over a situation in Hong Kong's Vietnamese refugee camps that volunteer workers say is rapidly approaching crisis point.
English teacher Clare Hanbury, who spent two years working in the camps, flew to London this week carrying a detailed report on life in the camps.
Hong Kong, with nearly 10,000 refugees, has never turned away any of the Vietnamese who have steadily fled their homeland by boat since the 1975 communist victory.
Most are segregated behind the barbed wire of closed camps. Since 1982, all boat people have been sent to these closed camps
introduced, the government say, as a humane deterrent to future arrivals.
The refugee question has developed into a major issue in recent months, with a number of legislators calling for the colony's "first asylum" policy to be scrapped.
The report by Hanbury and her colleagues calls for immediate action to improve the lives of refugees within the framework of the closed camp policy, while working towards a longer-term solution.
"Britain should take an active and vocal lead in all international action and ensure that its activity centres on refugees from Hong Kong and not elsewhere, the report says. It will be presented to Lord Glenarthur, the British government minister responsible for Hong Kong. Glenarthur caused a storm last month when he said Britain had increased its intake of refugees directly from Vietnam while refusing to boost the 20 a month it accepts from Hong Kong.
"By being seen to abdicate its duty to the refugees in the colony's closed camps, it (the British government) lays itself open to accusations of abandoning the colony in the run-up to 1997,1 the report said.
Peking is due to regain sovereignty of Hong Kong under an agreement with London in 1997.
Government officials in Hong Kong have consistently said that the refugees are adequately housed, fed and well-treated in the camps run by the Correctional Services Department (CSD), which also runs the colony's prisons.
The report details a number of complaints from refugees about prison-like conditions and mistreatment by, camp guards. The report, which will also be sent to Britain's Princess Anne in her capacity as President of the Save The Children Fund, urges better education and vocational training, more contact with the world outside the camps, the introduction of more paid work and, better use of refugees with special skills to improve camp life.
It cites Hong Kong legislative councillor Martin Lee, à a proponent of democratic reform in Hong Kong in the run-up to 1997, who favours better treatment for refugees.
"I always feel we should do more for the refugees. After in 10 years' time we may find ourselves in that little boat," he said.
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