Refugee exploiters acquitted

Press, 4 January 1980, Page 5

Refugee exploiters acquitted

NZPA-Reuter Hong Kong The captain and four crew of the freighter Skyluck, which brought more than 2600. Vietnamese refugees to' Hong Kong, have been ac-; quitted of conspiracy charges ] by a Hong Kong court. "The five, all Taiwanese, were accused of conspiring! to defraud the Hong Kong Government by making false statements about the circumstances in which the Vietnamese refugees were picked up early last year. ! The Hong Kong-owned I Skyluck arrived last Febru-j ary.. The authorities refused i

to admit the refugees, and the vessel remained anchored off Lamma Island west, of the colony, until June 29, when the refugees cut the anchor 1 chains to beach -her. j The court acquitted . the; captain, Hsiao Hung-Pin I I aged 42, and the crew bej cause it found that the cons- ! piracy was to take the refugees to the Philippines, not to Hong Kong. They had landed 600 refugees in the Philippines before the ship was chased iaway from the shore by the l local authorities. ■ The • refugees then forced i the captain to continue to

11 Hong Kong, the court found. ! The judge described the : four as evil men who had at- i i tempted to profit from traf- • ficking in human cargo. The prosecution said dur-! :ting the trial that the whole!; i [ trip had been prearranged! ■ and that the Skyluck had en-! tered Vietnamese watery ■ three times to pick up the!! ; refugees who had been sail-! ing in small boats. it The prosecution said the ] ■ ■ refugees had paid gold top ! Vietnamese officials to es-tj : cape from Vietnam. it When the Skyluck was!) beached last June the ’re-” i fugees pelted marine police-h

men who tried to stop them with molotov cocktails and other missiles. Four of them were later convicted of rioting. ; The other refugees, who 'jumped ashore as the Sky- ! luck hit the shore, were sent !to refugee camps in Hong ! Kong. Some. have, already ibeen resettled abroad. ! Some 55,000 Vietnamese iare still housed in camps in ;the British colon}’, which ' tried to take a hard line with ! people suspected of trafficking in refugees during the ! height of the exodus from ! Vietnam in the first six I months of la ? st year.