Marine Department interrogates eviction-threatened families at Hong Kong’s Discovery Bay Marina Club
- Officers looking into allegations of people illegally using boats as homes
- Members have already been told to clear out of the marina by the end of the year, for renovation
Hong Kong authorities have visited a marina which is home to some 200 eviction-threatened houseboat families, to investigate complaints of people living in boats illegally.
It was the latest twist in a running controversy at the Discovery Bay Marina Club, which has already drawn the ire of many members with plans to remove them before the end of the year.
One resident, Ueli Tschupp-Lambert, said on Monday the Marine Department officers visited him and his family last Thursday morning.
Tschupp-Lambert, whose family has lived on a boat in the marina since 2008, said officers interviewed him and his wife for three hours about whether they had been breaking the law by using their yacht “not for pleasure purposes”.
“We are already being evicted,” he said. “People are scared. They are losing their livelihood and everything, and now we are being harassed by these government officials. This is beyond anything that I’d ever heard of or experienced. It’s really sad.”