THE likelihood Vietnamese migrants will escape from detention centres will remain high for the foreseeable future, the Correctional Services Department yesterday warned.
In a paper to the Legislative Council security panel, the department said the migrants felt they had nothing to lose. The anti-deportation feeling among them also remained high.
Last year, a total of 100 boat people escaped from two detention centres, while in 1994 only one escaped.
The number of migrants absconding from hospitals while being treated also increased slightly from 1994's 345 to 347 last year.
But since the Vietnamese migrant problem was expected to be 'resolved in the reasonably near future, it is impractical for consideration to be given to major additional physical security arrangements'.
Such facilities would take months to build and the imposition of greater restrictions on the freedom of Vietnamese migrants would be controversial.