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I left Hong Kong in September 1990 and began to write shortly thereafter. This paper is a personal compilation of accounts and observations of the problems in detention centres.
It in no way pretends to be a comprehensive report of the refugee situation in Hong Kong. It does not seek to be a legal document, with allegations or listings of dates and names. Those details have been omitted partially to protect those still in the camps. As there is little stability in Hong Kong's detention centres, I have raised points based upon my knowledge as of the date of my departure. Since then, a few others were related to me by those still there.
In isolation, the problems discussed in this paper may not seem unbearable. However, if one considers their prolonged and cumulative nature, the debilitating plight of Hong Kong's detained refugees can be more fully appreciated.
Overview
Since 1975, boatloads of people have been fleeing Communist Vietnam and given temporary asylum in Hong Kong. However, effective June 16, 1988, the Hong Kong Government began to consider all asylum seekers illegal immigrants unless the Immigration Department grants them refugee status via a "screening" process.
Usually, once intercepted in Hong Kong waters, the local authorities take asylum seekers to Green Island Reception Centre. Here, they are made to squat in line at the pier, stripped of their belongings, hosed down for quarantine and deloused en masse. Then they are given a number that becomes their identity from then on. After this "welcome", the asylum seekers are locked in damp halls with up to 400 others, depending on the number of arrivals at the time. Practice here may have changed according to influx, but at least until January 1990, the camp authority allowed asylum seekers out in the island's small open space for only 2 hours per day. Once the necessary papers are processed and space is available, the asylum seekers are placed in a detention centre. There they are to remain indefinitely unless the Immigration Department grants them refugee status. Until now, a very small percentage of asylum seekers has been able to obtain such status and leave the detention
centres for resettlement.
At present, in addition to Green Island Reception Centre and Lowu, a centre for those who volunteered to repatriate and are waiting for their flights, there are eight detention centres in Hong Kong: Argyle Street, Sek Kong, High Island, Hei Ling Chau, Nei Kwu Chau, Whitehead, and Chi Ma Wan Upper and Lower Camps. Though each detention centre has its own distinct set of problems, the general situation is the same for all asylum seekers.
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Physically, all centres are depressing and confining. They are in fact high-security prisons. Most have high fences with up to 12 rolls of barbed wires lining their top and bottom, inside and out. With the exception of the few smaller camps that have a few trees, only steel, metal and concrete surround the detainees. They live in
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