Urgent call for immigrants' ship
SECURITY Branch officials have ordered the Marine Department to find a ship to send home the ex-China Vietnamese illegal immigrants under extreme urgency, saying no more time can be lost.
A branch team, headed by acting Refugee Co-ordinator Eddy Chan Yuk-tak, was yesterday told that no suitable ship had yet been found around Asia.
The Marine Department's report follows several weeks' work, including scouting around the region by shipbrokers.
Lack of progress means that Macau casino mogul Stanley Ho's $2.5 million offer for his Taiwan ferry, Macmosa, remains on the table despite fears it could pose a security risk with its many corridors and rooms.
''We're concerned about the fact that we aren't making much progress and the Marine Department are now extending their search,'' Mr Chan said.
''We simply can't rule out any possibilities at the moment.'' The right ship must be safe but secure and flagged in Hong Kong so local police can use their powers on board.
Any proposal to use a Chinese registered ship - and therefore Chinese security forces as guards - is now a last resort as it would need extra mainland approval.
Sources said last month's initial agreement with China stipulated that Hong Kong take the Vietnamese for handover to several set border points, including Beihai in Guangxi province and Hainan Island.
The search for a vessel to ship home the nearly 2,000 migrants who flooded here this summer from Beihai and Hainan was hampered early on by news that the Lo Shan, used in a similar repatriation in 1987, had been sold by Mr Ho.
It has since been traced to a dockyard in Tolo Harbour and is thought to be now laid up in such a bad condition that it could take months of work before it would be ready.
The Security Branch hopes to get the first sea-borne forcible repatriation away from Hong Kong by early next month.
Mr Chan said yesterday no timetable had been set but the Government was determined to return the migrants to China at the ''earliest possible opportunity''.
Meanwhile, final plans are being put together for the second land repatriation of the Vietnamese migrants on Wednesday.
Like the 109 that left two weeks ago, the 26 are in the minority who fled to Beihai and then Hong Kong from farms in Guangdong, and will be driven to the border at Sha Tau Kok.
Two liaison officers, one from the mainland and one from Hong Kong, have been appointed and are expected to be in almost daily contact until the repatriation is complete.
Beijing is also setting up a liaison office in Guangdong to ease communication for the return of the immigrants of whom more than 900 have been identified as coming from Hainan, 800 from Guangxi, 330 from Guangdong and 50 each from Yunnan and Fujian provinces.
