CONFIDENTIAL
dawned on the inmates that arrival in Hong Kong was not the start of a new and exciting life but of a process more akin to detention and interrogation with repatriation to Vietnam at the end of it. The centre is run by the Civil Aid Services who are clearly doing a highly professional job.
Hei Ling Chau Detention Centre
26.
D'accord
This camp has been custom built on the site of a former leper colony, closed in 1975. A centre for juvenile drug addicts is located at another part of the island. Hei Ling Chau is where the screening of post-15 June 1988 arrivals takes place, according to criteria in the 1951 UN Convention. The screening process is lengthy and methodical, as I was able to observe. of 7,000 arrivals since 15 June, only 600 had been screened by the time of my visit. I was told that some arrivals knew about the UN criteria and shaped their answers accordingly. But the real reasons for their leaving Vietnam invariably emerged in the course of questioning. The arrivals' main complaints about the Vietnamese Government were heavy taxation, favouritism for jobs and lack of freedom of movement. There were few allegations of persecution but scepticism whether any guarantee of a safe return to Vietnam would be honoured. The UNHCR has controlled access to unaccompanied minors in whom they are particularly interested. There were 16 under-14s and 100 under-18s in this category.
27.
The camp is run by the Correctional Services Department (CSD). I was told that the crime rate was high and even includes murder and malicious wounding. There are internal disciplinary procedures for minor offences: there were 7 Vietnamese youths in the cell block, each one for altering his meal ticket to get extra rations. (The maximum sentence is 28 days detention). More serious cases are referred to the police and subject to judicial procedures.
28.
I was told that the CSD staff were not happy at having to deal with the boat people. They were not trained to handle people who had committed no crime and who, because of wide disparities in age, sex and family composition could not be handled in the regulation manner as a prison population. Both sides evidently chafed under this regimen which ultimately depended on mutual respect between staff and inmates. This occasionally broke down, not least because of the language and cultural barriers. I was told that CSD staff were surprised at how readily some Vietnamese resorted to violence to gain their ends. They assumed that this must be due to conditions in Vietnam, after more than forty years of war. I fear that there is a certain mutual incomprehension between staff and inmates which is not
CA 2AIU
CONFIDENTIAL
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