A large-scale removal operation is being planned for the remote Tai A Chau detention centre - the island home of about 5,800 Vietnamese boat people and the last camp to be targeted. Scheduled to take place in about three months, the operation will involve meticulous planning because of what one police officer said were 'serious logistical difficulties'. Unlike Whitehead and High Island detention centres, the Tai A Chau camp covers the entire island, and instead of barbed wire, the detainees are surrounded by water. Housing about 5,800 detainees, all from south Vietnam, the camp is secured by the police. Whitehead and High Island are secured by the Correctional Services Department. There has been no violence in the Tai A Chau camp and the Security Branch is unsure of what reception police will receive. The Tai A Chau group will be transferred to Whitehead or High Island before being returned to Vietnam. Vietnamese were first moved to the island in May 1989 as the Government struggled to accommodate the thousands of people arriving every month. A lack of facilities led to an outbreak of cholera and at one stage police were forced to withdraw from the island for 20 hours during a massive riot in that first year. The boat people were landed with no sanitation, housing or medical facilities and at one stage had control of the island, forcing police to retake it in riot gear. The island, south of Lantau, is about 2.5 kilometres long and about one kilometre at its widest point. At the High Island detention centre yesterday about 1,000 police and Correctional Services officers in riot gear were involved in an operation to remove 116 people from the north and south sections of the Sai Kung camp. Dozens of protesters took to the roofs of huts waving banners and SOS flags. One of the banners in the south camp called for support for their 'Provisional National Government of V N (Vietnam)'. Another banner implored people to boycott Vietnam Airlines, the national carrier used for voluntary repatriation of boat people. Unlike the recent violence at Whitehead detention centre, which saw hundreds of tear-gas canisters fired, yesterday's operation involved only one reported injury. A 39-year-old Vietnamese man was taken to Queen Elizabeth Hospital after he jumped from the roof of a dormitory hut to avoid being captured. He was in a fair condition last night. Fifty-four people were taken from the south camp and 62 from the north section. Shortly before the operation began at 9 am, the majority of the Vietnamese targeted came forward voluntarily.
