Public Opinion: Policies and Politics

Abstract

What the law appears to say, how these laws are interpreted and the extent to which policy is thus determined reflect the increasing confusion during the second part of the 1980s, and especially after 16 June 1988. As suggested in Chapter 2, the introduction of the screening and repatriation policy on that date was probably the greatest political error in the whole saga. From that decision—which many would say stemmed directly from the unreasonably loud calls by a small number of local politicians for a change of direction—flowed many of the uncontrolled and often uncontrollable actions leading to the current complexity. People in Hong Kong have recognised the significance of the introduction of screening:

Refugees have genuine political reason

(South China Morning Post, 14 November 1988)

… The Government has implemented a strict screening policy of all newly-arrived refugees from Vietnam while these people are kept in detention centres, which in principle is against the practice of the principles of British justice—detaining people indefinitely without trial.