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Refugee brides 'tricked' in repatriation move

THREE young wives, one with a baby girl, claim Correctional Services Department (CSD) officers lied and tricked them in a government bid to force them back to Vietnam before their United States visas could be finalised.

The women, from High Island detention camp, told lawyers they were tricked by CSD officers, who bundled them into a truck and took them to Victoria Prison last week.

The surprise round-up - which seized one woman and her baby barefoot - came as the women were trying to schedule medical check-ups and consular interviews to join their husbands in the United States.

Their names appear on a list of Vietnamese asylum-seekers to be forcibly returned to Vietnam on Tuesday.

''They were approached by CSD officers at High Island who said: 'We need to talk to you. We swear this is no trick','' a source said.

''They weren't given any warning. They were thrown into the back of a truck and taken to prison. They are very afraid.'' High Island's 2,000 detainees have been on hunger strike since the incident five days ago.

Lawyers said two of the women had current visa applications to join their US-citizen husbands in Texas and should have been interviewed by the US Consulate last October.

Both husbands had already paid their wives' air fares to the United States, following instructions from Hong Kong's US Consulate last year.

''We have at least three women who are ready for their interviews now. They've done all their paperwork, but the Hong Kong Government has decided to forcibly repatriate them,'' the refugee worker said.

One legal source questioned why the women, with family reunions on the horizon, were scheduled for the next repatriation flight.

''Perhaps it is to deter marriages by Vietnamese asylum-seekers - to send a message to the population of the detention centres that people who enter into marriages will be consigned to different parts of the world and forced to live apart for a long time, possibly for ever,'' he said.

Government refugee co-ordinator Brian Bresnihan said: ''I note the allegations but we never comment on the selection of people for the list.'' Mr Bresnihan also declined to say why the words ''application to join husband in US refused'' appeared beside the women's names on the government repatriation list.

He said ''absolutely no force . . . or underhand methods'' had been used to move the women.

Refugee lawyer Pam Baker said US consular officers yesterday offered to interview two of the women at 9 am tomorrow, but insisted they bring original birth certificates from Vietnam, original marriage certificates, and certificates of ''no criminal conviction'' from police headquarters.

''It appears to me that it is quite well known to the US Consulate that they won't be able to get these in time,'' Ms Baker said.

A consular spokeswoman said she could make no comment on the timing. ''All I can say is that they do have to have all the documents by the time of the interview, and they have to be complete,'' she said.

''[Those] two women are being petitioned by their husbands, who are US citizens, so there is no waiting period [for resettlement]. The third's husband is a permanent US resident [but not a citizen]. That waiting period is up to a year.'' Ms Baker said they were caught in an impossible situation.

''The trick is that the US Consulate says: 'Yes, they're ready for interview, but we don't go to detention centres so they must come and see us','' she said. ''But the Hong Kong Government says: 'we don't let them out without a visa'.'' The women - Ho Thi Xuan, 23, Pham Thi Anh Hong, 22, Huynh Thi Hong Hanh, 23, with her 16-month-old daughter Nguyen Thuy Hoan - have remained in Victoria Prison since their sudden removal from High Island camp.

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