There are Chinese immigrants in the refugee camps. They wrote to The Supreme Master Ching Hai for help. They expressed their hopelessness in the camp. They asked the free world for some human compassion.
... In the High Island Camp, there are over six hundred Chinese descendants...
... After the "Geneva Conference", the international environment has been very unfavourable towards the boat people. The Hong Kong government took the opportunity to enforce the repatriation policy, forcing us to return to live under the Viet-communist regime. The Hong Kong government made plans to enforce repatriation by using relocation as an excuse. On April 7, the armed police oppressed the boat people of the 7th camp in Whitehead. The day will never be forgotten; it shall forever stay as part of the bloody history of the boat people....
... The Hong Kong police brutally raided the camp in large scale. Disregarding the lives and safety of the women and children, they bombarded us with over five hundred canisters of tear gas and using other weapons to assault the unresisting boat people. The confrontation was so frightening as if we were in a war. This brutal raid resulted in over two hundred injured boat people....
... It was very unwise of the Hong Kong government to treat the boat people this way. It was unworthy of them to be the honoured recipient of the 1991 International Humanitarian Award! They ignored the Hong Kong people's long-standing respect of human rights; they violated the international law among the democratic countries to protect human rights; but worst of all, they failed the loving people of Hong Kong, who, for the past decade have paid taxes with their hard earned money to support the boat people....
... In March, the police searched our camp and found no weapons at all other than a few bamboo sticks. However, the police faked evidence and lied to the press that the boat people in High Island Camp had made over four hundred pieces of weapons preparing for riot and kidnapping. I believe the camp authority knows the truth and the government had cheated the innocent people of Hong Kong and betrayed their advocacy for humanitarianism....
... All of us rigorously protest to the United Nations for not fulfilling its duty of protecting the boat people. They watched with indifference while the armed Hong Kong police brutally oppressed the boat people, and did not attempt to make any effort to stop the violence....
... Regarding refugee status... Even the United Nations does not have the kind of personal experience to understand the true background of the boat people before they left Vietnam. Therefore, they ignored their conscience and violated the international treaty. This is truly the shame of the century!....
... Should the Hong Kong government try the brutal armed oppression again, we want the world to know that we are the people of a fallen nation and have suffered through all mistreatment already, when driven to desperation, we will follow the footsteps of those in Sun Gei-Besi camp in Malaysia and take the group action to resist the Hong Kong government. When the tragedy happens, the Hong Kong government shall bear the responsibility fully....
... The Viet-communist regime had once tried to assimilate the Chinese descendants and treated us as vile enemies. They prohibited teachings of Chinese language and culture and exerted high pressure to force the Chinese into the uninhabited ancient forest to explore economic resources. They came into existences of themselves and die out by themselves; their miseries were indescribable. This resulted in wide spread of illiteracy and multitudes of undocumented deaths....
... Several elders and myself have sent letters to some overseas Chinese organizations abroad to help us rescue the school age children here not to tread the tragic cycle of illiteracy....
... The British & Hong Kong government had coerced Vietnam to agree to take back the refugees. After the forced agreement was made, the Hong Kong government disregarded the international treaty for the refugees, violated the law of human rights and ignored the existence of humanitarianism. They high-pressured the boat people, and repeatedly repatriated by force those who sought political asylum. Through a screening procedure, the officers tried every way to deny the refugee status of those being screened. There were no lawyers present during the screening process. The immigration officers took the opportunity of Vietnam's agreement to repatriation, and in their recordings, wilfully alleviated the tragic encounters of those being screened. Therefore, the true accounts of our experience which qualified us as refugees were being distorted, even those who were oppressed and expelled by the Viet-communist were also denied refugee status....
... The lawyer's organization which defended us at that time could not fight against the powerful Hong Kong government. Our files were not processed by the court, and we have been detained in the camp without justification, and are facing the threat of forced repatriation. If we were forced to go back, then we become homeless....
... The representatives from Vietnam had refused to take us back....
... We are in a situation where we have no place to go and no place to return to. We can only repeatedly plead to the United Nations, the Hong Kong government and other organizations to please give us a place to go. We don't want to be detained in the camp any longer; our children are turning into morons, and their future is being ruined; or perhaps, they will end their lives with ours....
... We have been locked up in this so-called refugee detention center for such a long time, unable to get any help. Can't act according to our will. We are just like the footballs to be kicked around. It is like being imprisoned for life without committing any crime. Until what year will the Hong Kong government detain us? May we ask the international community, does the law and humanity still exist? The detention center has become a lifetime prison; our lives are being murdered slowly by time. Are the ones who forced death upon us guilty of murder? Have they stripped us of human rights? Have they violated the humanitarianism of the democratic nations? (1) The mainland China Government refused to accept us. (2) Hong Kong government denied our refugee status. (3) The Vietnamese Government refused to take us back....
... We have fled from our home, drifted around for over ten years and came to Hong Kong in search of freedom; instead, we have been detained unmercifully for another five years....
... Why use long term detention to torture us and extend our misery to the next generation?....
... We are the true orphans who have no home, no country, and whom nobody cared about; we have been the political outcast for over ten years. We yearn to receive some loving care and never to be cast into the homeless and hopeless desperation again. We pray for the loving compassion of the international democratic community, to please hold out your hand to rescue us, to give us freedom and a new life!....