2.
Power to transfer Vietnamese Boat People to other
detention centres
A new power to transfer any detainee to another centre is
provided, and will take retrospective effect from June 1988
(except that legal proceedings already in progress will not be affected). This is to plug a gap in the existing legislation which is unclear as to whether such a power exists. Where the transfer is on grounds of "good order or
good management" an appeal may be brought to an official
appointed by the Secretary for Security, whose decision
shall be final. Where the transfer is on other grounds, there is no right of appeal at all.
FCO Legal Advisers' concern is not with the power to transfer itself, but with the absence of any recourse to an
independent body to review the grounds for transfer in an
individual case. If the transfer involved an interference
with the family life of the detainee or the transfer was to
a centre with a harsher regime or greater deprivations of
liberty, the absence of appeal or review is likely to result
in breaches of the ICCPR.
Hong Kong Government comment that if routine transfers
(dozens of which take place each day) were appealable, the
potential workload would be enormous. It is in practice
only in the case of transfers on management grounds (ie of
troublemakers) that the question of violation of rights
arises. If, in any other case, good cause was shown, the
decision would be reviewed administratively.
3.
Decisions of the Refugee Status Review Board
The existing law provides that decisions of the Board,
whether as to a person's status or as to the legality of
his detention, are not subject to judicial review or appeal.
The amendment provides that the immunity from review or
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