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Immigration officials have forced boat people to sign statements saying they are illegal immigrants even though they have asked for asylum, their lawyers claim.

 Fifteen boat people, including four children, arrived in July saying they wanted to return to Vietnam but were being persecuted there and needed international help to guarantee them their rights.

 But they were held at Green Island reception centre until they signed forms declaring they entered illegally for work and were not seeking asylum, said lawyer Pam Baker.

 She contacted the Government in August seeking help for the 15 and is now considering legal action.

 'I want the Government to face facts and realise that Vietnam is not going to take these people back,' she said.

 'Even if they are going back - and this is what they want - let them out to Pillar Point [open camp] now. It doesn't make sense to hold people in detention with no end in sight.'  All had been detained in Hong Kong before, were refused by Vietnam for return and released to Pillar Point.

 After more than a year of freedom for some, they were detained again and sent to Hanoi.

 But Nguyen Van Nam and Vuong Van Hoa - typical of the 15 - were arrested on their return to Vietnam and detained. Their families who had different household registrations or ho khau were allowed to go home.

 Both are ethnic Chinese and were told they could not stay in Vietnam. 'I begged to be allowed to remain with my wife and children and to join their ho khau,' Mr Hoa, 37, said.

 He said he had been threatened many times in the following weeks with deportation from Vietnam. The father of two children born in detention said he felt he had to escape.

 'I want to go back to Vietnam to join my wife and children, but only if I am given ho khau, citizenship and a place to live. Otherwise I will be rejected again.'  Mr Nam, also 37, said he wanted to rejoin his wife and their one-year-old son.

 'I frequently asked the cadre why I was not allowed to return home,' he said.

 'He replied that our repatriation was a mistake by the Vietnamese delegation in Hong Kong. He told me I must wait for the Vietnamese Government to arrange for me to be sent to China and given to the Chinese Government to deal with. This made me very scared.'  An Immigration Department spokesman would not comment on individual cases, but denied maltreatment at Green Island.

 'Our staff do not ever force anybody to sign any document. Any document not signed voluntarily is meaningless,' he said.



Boat people 'forced to sign away rights'