TNAG-1786-FCO40-2546-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-refugees-closed-camp-policy-1988 — Page 46

THE CAMPS

1) CHI MA WAN CLOSED CENTRE

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There are two camps at Chỉ Ma Wan on Lantau Island . Chi Wan Upper and Lower. Travelling time to Chi Ma Wan by public ferry is about an hour and by Government launch is about 40 minutes.

The camp's are. set in a valley, the lower camp being next to the sea. The shore is lined with palm trees and there is a sandy beach. These are outside the camp compound. On the approach from the sea the setting is really very pretty but once one has entered the camp and is surrounded by the 20 foot high chain link fences (barbed wire now removed) the beauty disappears and is replaced by a series of living huts and other buildings all set into concrete. There is no grass within the camp

children must play on concrete.

I was at Chi Ma Wan for only an hour and so the tour I had cannot be described in any way as comprehensive. I was shown round by the Head of the Welfare Department ( a member of the CSD Staff). He explained that the function of the Welfare Office was to provide the refugees with a service to include selling of stamps and stationery, assistance with tracing of relatives, money-changing and postal services. I asked if the refugees were allowed to keep money or whether it was held for them.

told that refugees have the option of keeping the money themselves or letting the Welfare Department hold it for them. Many refugees opted for the latter of the two options as there is little privacy in the living quarters of the camps.

Our first stop was the Hospital Building. Refugees stay here if they have minor ailments. For anything major including the delivery of babies they are taken to one of Hong Kong's hospitals. I was told that medical provision is at least on par with

that to be found in Hong Kong. There are clinics each day and refugees do not have to make an appointment.

Tang, the representative of the Hong Kong Government Office who accompanied me on the visit explained that in Hong Kong waiting lists to see doctors were sometimes far longer. The standard of the hospital was very much better than the living areas I was to see later

patients being accommodated in normal western style bunk beds.

which time. I

We then toured the Dining Hall an enormous hangar in several activites could be carried out at the same was there in mid-morning and so did not see a meal being eaten. At the time of my visit a group of young refugees were crowded around a television mounted on the wall above a doorway. I wondered how they were able to select the channel they wanted as the television was well above arm's reach.

The living areas were worse than I had expected. I had seen many photographs of living accommodation in closed camps but photographs give no indication of the atmosphere in these places, nor do they encapsulate the utter lack of motivation