TNAG-1917-FCO40-2721-Interdiction-of-Vietnamese-refugees-at-sea-1989 — Page 51

I.R.A. MacCallum, Esq.

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17th September 1982

Director of Immigration. Provision is included for a right of appeal in certain cases to either the Governor in Council or myself. Outside the Ordinance, a general right of petition to the Governor exists under Colonial Regulation 168.

Finally, there is nothing to prevent any detained refugee from testing the lawfulness of his detention by application to the High Court under a prerogative writ. At the Committee Stage of the Bill's progress through its various legislative stages, I moved an amendment to the Bill to draw specific attention to the availability of this procedure for any refugee detained under Section 13A(6) or (6A) of the principal Ordinance.

In these circumstances, I do not accept that our current very serious refugee problems have been handled as you suggest in "a complete disregard for the rule of law"; and it is not intended to provide a further means of review such as you have proposed in your letter of 28 June.

In your letter dated 14 July 1982 you commented on the Immigration (Vietnamese Refugee Centres) (Closed Centre) Rules 1982. These rules are not "copied from the normal Rules for prisons operated by the Correctional Services", as you suggest. Once the Administration had resolved that the Correctional Services Department was the appropriate service to manage closed centres, the existing rules under which the Department administers other detention centres were examined in detail, and amended to suit the specific requirements of refugee centres. It remains an important part of the Government's new refugee policy that the refugees accommodated in these centres should live within a generally disciplined framework - for experience elsewhere indicates that to do otherwise would rapidly reduce the physical environment of the centres to one of unsanitariness and unmanageability. This would be of no benefit to the refugees themselves.

I cannot accept your comparison between the actual use of firearms in certain circumstances in Malaysia, and the legal provision made in the Rules for Correctional Services staff to be able to resort to the use of firearms to restore order in a

camp, if ever this were to prove really necessary. Rule 37

defines in detail the extreme circumstances in which firearms may be used; and is preceded by Rule 36 which specifically enjoins every Correction Services officer against anything more than a minimum use of force in any circumstances.

For the above reasons, although the administration of the closed camps and the application of the Rules will be kept under close review by the Government, it is not intended to amend the Rules at the present time.

Yours sincerely,

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(L. M. Davies) Secretary for Security