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SCMP Reporter

PLANS are in place to close all but two of the remaining detention centres for Vietnamese boat people in Hong Kong.

  The Government is likely to be in a position to announce the closures within six months in a move which will bring huge cuts in the bill for keeping Vietnamese migrants in detention.

  The biggest camp expected to close will be Tai A Chau, cutting $57 million a year in operating and infrastructure costs.

  The largest detention centre in Hong Kong is Whitehead at Sha Tin, where about 19,000 people are detained. It mostly houses people from northern Vietnam and is likely to be the last detention centre to close because of its size.

  Government Refugee Co-ordinator Brian Bresnihan said yesterday that it was hoped only two main detention centres would be necessary by the end of the year.

  Until today's closure of Nei Kwu Chau, six detention centres were operating in the territory. The other five are Chi Ma Wan (upper), Tai A Chau, the Kai Tak transit centre, High Island and Whitehead.

  Other centres still open include a reception centre at Green Island, the New Horizons Refugee Departure Centre and the Pillar Point refugee centre.

  Mr Bresnihan said the detainees in High Island would be integrated with those in Tai A Chau.

  ''This would be done as a matter of common sense, because the people in these two camps are mostly southerners and we try to keep them separate from the northerners,'' he said.

  At one stage, about 20 camps and half-way houses were operating for Vietnamese migrants.

  About 29,000 Vietnamese migrants remain in Hong Kong. High Island, with a capacity of 6,600 holds 2,835, while Tai A Chau, with a capacity of 9,000, holds about 7,000.

  Mr Bresnihan said no decision had been made on which of those two camps would be closed, but High Island would be the easier one to keep open because it was on the mainland.

  He said that because Tai A Chau was an island, it was more expensive to maintain and staff.

  It was hoped that Chi Ma Wan (Upper) detention centre would be closed before the end of the year, he said.

   Mr Bresnihan said that if the decision was made to consolidate the detainees from Tai A Chai with those in High Island, it would not mean an immediate camp closure.

  ''We would simply decant people from one to the other as the capacity in High Island allowed - if it was the one to stay open,'' he said.

  ''Hopefully, a decision on what happens will be possible by the middle of the year, but despite what we would hope for, it would be unlikely that the two detention centre system for northerners and southerners would be fully operating by the end of the year.''   His comments coincided with today's closure of Nei Kwu Chau detention centre, where 400 migrants were being detained. They were transferred to Whitehead.

  Mr Bresnihan said the consolidation of camps would not conflict with the Sek Kong inquiry recommendations of Mr Justice Michael Kempster.

  Mr Justice Kempster made recommendations on limiting detention centre numbers following a fire in 1992 at Sek Kong detention centre, in which 24 people died.

  ''We will only be transferring people into camps as others move out under the repatriation and re-settlement programmes,'' Mr Bresnihan said.

  He said there was growing pressure from the Correctional Services Department, which polices most of the camps, to speed up camp closures because staff were needed elsewhere.

  A Security Branch spokesman said consideration was being given to what would happen to Tai A Chau if it closed.

  An aid worker for a non-government organisation operating in Hong Kong's Vietnamese detention centres said there were likely to be pockets of opposition from people on Tai A Chau if they were forced to move to High Island.

      ''Tai A Chau is a nice camp with generally good living conditions, High Island is not as good,'' he said.



Closure plan to leave two camps