Several makeshift banners were hoisted yesterday at the entrance to the Pillar Point Vietnamese Refugee Centre in Hong Kong, writes Conor O'Clery, Asia Correspondent.
One said in red letters: "HK government, please give us a small place to live." Another said: "We need a place for living." With these pathetic pleas, the 25-year saga of Vietnamese boat people in Hong Kong camps, a pitiful story of lost hope and of helpless refugees sinking into destitution and crime, came to an end. At midnight last night, Hong Kong officially closed the last refugee camp, after serving eviction notices on the remaining 190 residents.
Throughout yesterday, families loaded beds, refrigerators and boxes of clothing on to trucks, and prepared to take up an uncertain life in the local community, where some have no jobs and face prejudice.
Hong Kong once had 20 refugee camps, through which 200,000 boat people were processed after they began arriving in 1979. They were fleeing economic and political hardships in Vietnam, and often had to endure perilous sea voyages. Many were able to travel on to third countries and some returned to Vietnam after the communist government in Hanoi relaxed its harsh policies in the 1990s - though no ethnic Chinese were allowed to go back.
