detained temporarily or continuing their voyage. The warning notice served on the Vietnamese asylum seekers (in Vietnamese) highlights the free choice open to them, ie they are free to leave if they do not wish to be detained in Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Government does not therefore seek arbitrarily to detain Vietnamese asylum seekers. Furthermore, even if they
decide to remain in Hong Kong's detention centres, they are free at any point in time to return to Vietnam under the UNHCR's voluntary repatriation programme, with appropriate financial assistance. The Hong Kong Government is also required by law to render all reasonable assistance to facilitate the Vietnamese migrants to leave Hong Kong if they are accepted for entry by another country, including their country of origin.
The
22. Status determination procedures are necessarily time-consuming bearing in mind that more than 79,000 Vietnamese arrived in Hong Kong between 1988 and 1991. normal practice is to screen the arrivals chronologically according to their date of arrival. The average time taken for a Vietnamese migrant to complete the screening process is estimated to be 2 days, depending on the complexity of the claim for refugee status. As at 1 October 1993, the total Vietnamese migrants population in detention centres stood at
35,148. Of these, about 88% had been screened out at first
instance and about 67% at second instance. Screening of the remainder of the camp population is expected to be completed
in late 1994.
23. The Hong Kong Government has committed considerable resources to the screening process which is estimated to have
cost US$76 million since 1989.
Arb.Det
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