HK



Hong Kong's Argyle Detention Center for refugees from Vietnam lies near the eastern edge of the Kowloon peninsula, directly beneath the line of approach for aircraft coming into Kai Tak International Airport. It is sealed off from the external environment by a high metal fence with barbed wire rolled out along the top; and each section within the compound is segregated from the others by similar fences. Tall, grey guard towers stand at each corner of the outer fence, around the perimeter of the compound. Like the other refugee camps in the territory - and like the prisons and jails - Argyle is operated under the administrative authority of the Hong Kong Department of Corrections.

The men, women, and children interned within the compound - fingerprinted, photographed, and registered as inmates of the Department of Corrections - are not here due to any act of theft or violence or corruption which they have committed. They are detained here only because of their presence in the territory - their existence here - which is considered illegal. Mostly arrivals from Northern and Central Vietnam, from which Hong Kong is the nearest place of asylum reachable by sea, they arrived in the territory without proper documentation; and so are considered guilty of a criminal act. Under territorial law, they are to be released only at such time as they are granted entry to a third country such as the United States; or at such time as they are either voluntarily or forcibly repatriated to Vietnam.

Inside the compound, the inmates live under crowded conditions in long, grey metal warehouses which serve as barracks; and in which they sleep on the floors. At one end of each barracks is an open doorway, leading out into a small, fenced-in yard, topped with concrete, on which the inmates are permitted to walk around in circles or sit quietly under the sun. The gates to each of these fenced-in concrete slabs are kept locked; and whenever inmates are taken from one barracks to another section of the compound - such as daily when the children are taken to school - they are escorted by armed and uniformed Department of Corrections security personnel. Between the various, sealed-off sections of the compound are narrow concrete walkways, like a labyrinth, with high fences rising up all around.

As you walk along one of these narrow walkways today - as a visitor, by permission of the refugee office at the U.S. Consulate in Hong Kong and under armed escort - people gaze out at you from behind the fences all around you. Old men and women walk in slow circles in the yards, and children sit leaning against the fences with their fingers sticking out through the wire. As you pass a school, you look up at one of the windows to see a young girl peering out at you. When your eyes meet, she smiles shyly and holds up her hand to wave at you. You smile and wave back; and then walk on, following your escort.

From most points within the Argyle compound, you cannot see out in any direction except straight up. You cannot see the traffic passing in the streets outside, although you can hear automobile horns and truck engines in the distance. You cannot see the glittering luxury hotels at the lower end of Kowloon, or the tall, shiny bank towers on Hong Kong Island. You cannot see the family of tourists from Fort Lauderdale, Florida or Buena Park, California, posing for snapshots on Victoria Peak; you cannot see Mr. and Miss Hong Kong Super-Slick, driving their Jaguar beneath the bright neon lights down Nathan Road all sharp looks and hairstyles like a Kung-Fu spy movie; and you cannot see the well-dressed, computer-age businessman on the Queensway, talking on his cellular telephone as he crosses the street from one skyscraper to another. You cannot see any of these things, although they are happening all around you. The only direction you can see out is straight up - at the empty sky; and every so often, at the silver underbellies of airliners, passing low overhead on their descent into Kai Tak.



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