The High Island camp in Sai Kung Country Park, scene of riots and breakouts, will be mothballed in case there is an influx of illegal immigrants, according to Deputy Secretary for Security Sally Wong Pik-yee.

Two forced repatriation flights took 267 former High Island inmates back to Hanoi yesterday. The deportation charters would continue as long as there were enough people to merit them, she said. After that, returnees might be sent home on commercial flights.

Discussions are continuing with Vietnamese officials to get them to accept the return of people that Hanoi has deemed 'non-nationals'. Talks are also under way with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees over the repayment of the $1.16 billion debt incurred by Hong Kong looking after the boat people.

'The Vietnamese Government has indicated it is willing to consider cases with new information so our colleagues in Security and Immigration are trying to collect as much information as possible about these migrants,' Ms Wong said.

Ms Wong officiated at yesterday's closure ceremony at High Island which she described as a happy and historic occasion. Amid potted plants specially brought in, officers lowered the flag of the Correctional Services Department which ran the camp from 1991.

More than 20,000 boat people have passed through its doors since it opened in 1989, then controlled by police, according to the camp's last chief, Superintendent Tong Shui-kwong.

Although one of his officers was taken hostage by detainees who also staged a mass breakout during his time in charge, Mr Tong said the Vietnamese were 'good people'.