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few asylum seekers who are able to obtain their service because y are accused of interfering with voluntary repatriation by giving asylum seekers "false" hope.
Amnesty International and the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, among others, have raised serious concerns about the screening process. Even the UNHCR has criticized it on occasion. Meanwhile, its unjust procedure and its disheartening and fatal results cause asylum seekers the most distress. On the night before his screening, one man in Chi Ma Wan Centre reviewed repeatedly his life story which was prepared months in advance, and became so anxious that he reportedly had a heart attack and died even before being interviewed.
A recent development in screening is the special review process for unaccompanied minors (those in Hong Kong without their parents). Because they are considered to be a case by themselves, separate from any relative with whom they may have travelled, once the relative receives refugee status and has to move to an open camp, the minors are left behind in the detention centre alone. There have not been decisions on enough unaccompanied minor cases to determine whether the minors will eventually join their relatives in the open camp, but in the meantime they feel greater fear and loneliness in the detention centre.
As impossible as it is both to obtain refugee status and to endure life in detention, asylum seekers are still more fearful of a bleak future in Vietnam. As a result, the majority choose to stay in Hong Kong. Most of those who volunteer to return confide that they do so because of the security problem in camp, that the fear for their lives is more immediate in detention. However, they also acknowledge that security, while the most serious problem, is a product of all the other problems. Security would be a minor concern, as in a normal society, if there were more freedom, more opportunity to be productive, sufficient resources, and a more hopeful future.
Argyle Street Detention Centre
Physically, Argyle seems to be the worst of the detention centres. It is a smaller camp in terms of both population and space, and probably the most densely populated. Civil Aid Services (CAS camp management) further reduces the space available for the detainees by sectioning off more than half of the camp area to be used for services, offices and storage. Living quarters are further ́divided into three small sections and those in one section are not
allowed access to the other two. The space of one section consists of 1 or 2 huts, a very small area in front and a washing area of 1 row of faucets. This is the total space a detainee has to share with 200-300 others for an infinite period of time. If other detention centres feel like a prison, Argyle feels like a cell. The camp may be small but needs not be so restrictive. Because of the lack of freedom of movement, people here feel even more caged and isolated. Friends may live in the same camp but never can talk to
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