960403

HK fears collapse

of plan to send illegal

alliens to Vietnam

HONG KONG: Hong Kong is afraid a court order that set free 214 detained Vietnamese refugees will open the floodgates and wreck plans to send thousands of illegal immigrants back to Vietnam, a senior official said on Wednesday.

Brian Bresnihan, head of the British colony's refugee control authority, said up to 7,000 Vietnamese not yet cleared by Hanoi for repatriation might exploit the court ruling.

The predicament arose at a sensitive time, with Hong Kong due to be handed back to China in 454 days, and with Beijing adamant that Britain must empty the refugee camps and get all the Vietnamese boat people out of the territory by that time.

But Hong Kong walked into a legal and human rights minefield after it vowed on Tuesday to beef up powers to detain the boat people in order to beat last week's ruling of Britain's Privy Council, the colony's final court of appeal.

Sealing a case brought by human rights lawyers, the Council ruled that 15 boat people who had no prospect of being taken back by Hanoi were illegally held in "an affront" to civilised society. As a result four families jubilantly walked free.

The government was caught in a crossfire of criticism from China, human rights groups and local press after saying it would bring in a law to thwart copycat court challenges.

"We have a concern centred on the seven thousand Vietnamese in our camps who have not yet been cleared for return. We do not think these people should go to the courts and argue that if they did apply for return they would be rejected...and they can no longer be lawfully detained," Bresnihan told Hong Kong radio.

Zheng Guoxiong, one of China's top officials in Hong Kong, said Tuesday's release would create an extra burden for local people and increase the complexity of the boat people problem.

Hong Kong camps hold 19,000 boat people. Most are detainees who have failed to win refugee status and face either forced or voluntary repatriation. But 7,000 of these still await clearance by a foot-dragging Vietnam.

Tens of thousands of people fled from Vietnam to Hong Kong and other territories after the commmunists won the Vietnam War in 1975.

Bresnihan said British Foreign Office Minister Jeremy Hanley would visit Hanoi next week to tackle the problem.

Asked by a radio interviewer if the planned law was not likely to stir up odium towards Hong Kong from around the world at a delicate time, he said: "The thrust of the legislation we have in mind will not provide for the arbitrary and indefinite detention of the Vietnamese we have in our camps. The Hong Kong government would never contemplate such legislation."

What the government wanted was to stop courts inferring that failure by Hanoi to formally notify Hong Kong that somebody was accepted for repatriation was tantamount to a rejection.

The government thought boat people who had not yet been cleared could still be approved, along with some who had been initially rejected. "We believe that through quiet diplomacy with Vietnam...Vietnam will accept these people back," he said.

Nihal Jayawickrama, senior law lecturer at Hong Kong University, said the government was disregarding the rule of law and should accept the decision of the Privy Council.-Reuter