UN officials combined offers of a new cash bonus with a counselling campaign yesterday to convince boat people to volunteer for repatriation.
Of the 1,500 people in the north section of the High Island camp, about 950 were told by United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) staff that they had been cleared for deportation but should take a new special repatriation allowance for volunteers of US$150 (HK$1,158).
The UNHCR chief of mission Jahanshah Assadi said US$150 would be paid in addition to a pre-departure allowance of US$50 and the US$240 given to people after they returned.
'We needed to distinguish between the voluntary and [forced] programmes and we could really only do that by giving a cash incentive,' Mr Assadi said.
The High Island (north camp) people have been told they have until Tuesday to volunteer for repatriation or face being sent back.
Mr Assadi said his team of about 20 counsellors, which had been brought in from other camps and the Hong Kong office, would work every day talking to detainees.
Previously they had advised people only three or four days before a deportation flight that they were on the passenger list.