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Following is the transcript (English portion) of remarks made by the Secretary for Security, Mr Ambrose S K Lee, at a media session today (December 29) on the assistance provided to Hong Kong people affected by tsunamis:
Reporter: Mr Lee, you said you'll be sending a large contingent of officers from tomorrow. Can you tell me what sort of role they will be playing? What will they be doing? What sort of measures are you taking?
Secretary for Security: We're planning to send about 120 officers to go to Phuket, including Immigration Officers, Police Officers, medical staff, Civil Aid Service and Auxiliary Medical Service (AMS). Nineteen Immigration Officers will start their journey this evening. The three medical officers have already left Hong Kong. The main task is to, first of all, set up a command centre in Phuket. And then we'll also set up some assistance points at Phuket and Bangkok airport as well as in the co-ordination centre provided by the Thai authorities offering assistance to those Hong Kong people in need. And the AMS people will also assist to provide some minor treatment to those who are wounded. And Immigration Officers will also be stationed at hospitals to take care of wounded Hong Kong residents. And Immigration Officers will also continue to verify the identity of those who claim to be Hong Kong residents. And Police Officers will mainly be responsible for locating those who are missing. They will visit hospitals, hotels; and they will liaise with the local police. And if very unfortunately there is reported fatality, our Police Officers will try to identify the identity of the deceased. These are the main responsibilities of these officers.
Reporter: Why were they not sent from the very outset?
Secretary for Security: When this unfortunate incident happened on the 26th of December, the SAR Government responded immediately. We're very concerned about the safety of our Hong Kong residents. And that's why Immigration Officers from Hong Kong took the first available flight in the morning of 27th to go to Phuket to assess the situation. You know information was rather confused in the first place. And the figures are rather contradictory. After assessing the information, the Chief Executive spoke yesterday that the Government will take all possible means to help Hong Kong people stranded in those affected areas. And the Chief Secretary for Administration chaired a task force to put in train various actions. And that's why we plan, after assessment, that our main task now is to locate those who are missing. Now to locate missing people requires a lot of resources and that is why we planned yesterday already to send a large contingent as reinforcement to our frontline Immigration Officers now in Phuket.
(Please also see Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Wednesday, December 29, 2004
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