Vietnamese refugees defy order to leave camp

HONG KONG - About 80 former Vietnamese boat people on Thursday demanded government housing and subsidies after they were made homeless by the closure of Hong Kong's last refugee camp.

The protesters were among 136 people who defied orders to move out of their rent-free barracks at remote Pillar Point after the camp's official closure at midnight Wednesday. The closure ended Hong Kong's 25 years of providing temporary asylum to the Vietnamese.

''The government wants to kick us out but doesn't give us a place to live,'' said Fan Chun-keung, 34, at the daylong sit-in at government headquarters.

''We're not criminals. We're just an unfortunate bunch that got stuck here,'' the part-time construction worker said.

Regina Ip, Hong Kong's security secretary, said only those who have signed an agreement to move out soon are allowed to stay at the camp temporarily. They still have to register with security officials before entering and leaving the locked camp.

Dissatisfied that they were kept behind a locked gate, a few of the remaining residents scuffled with police and security officials early Thursday, Asia Television reported. There were no arrests or injuries.

The government decided in February to shut down the camp and give the refugees Hong Kong residency, calling it a humanitarian solution for the Vietnamese and their Hong Kong-born children who had been awaiting relocation to the West - some for up to two decades.

Some 1,274 have applied for residency; 143 have not.

The refugees must now find their own means to survive in the affluent society, where rent for even the tiniest apartments in urban areas is frequently exceeds $750 per month.

Many refugees are unemployed or work odd jobs and complain that employers are reluctant to hire foreign workers. Others say they cannot find landlords who will rent to them.

Lam Li-lna, 35, said her monthly salary of $640 can barely support her unemployed husband and daughter, 2, even with free housing.

''No one would rent us a place because I couldn't prove to the landlords that I could pay rent for more than two months,'' said Lam, who fled Vietnam on a ramshackle fishing boat in 1989.

About 1 million Vietnamese fled to neighboring countries on foot or by boat to escape poverty or persecution after the communist North defeated the U.S.-backed South in 1975.

Hong Kong, then a British colony, gave unconditional temporary asylum to people awaiting resettlement in the West until 1988, when it added a screening process to separate political and economic refugees. The latter were sent home.

Some refugees were stuck in Hong Kong because they were refused asylum elsewhere because of criminal records or drug problems. Others had nowhere to go because the government could not prove their identity.