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. The department said the crime rate was not a serious source of concern in managing the detention centres. In the first 11 months of last year there were 335 crime cases in Whitehead and 63 in High Island reported to the police. A total of 268 Vietnamese migrants were convicted in 1995. There will be an operation at High Island camp today to remove up to 200 Vietnamese for deportation.