Asylum Denied to Refugees who Sheltered Snowden

Lawyer Robert Tibbo with the refugees who sheltered Snowden in 2013

Is it a coincidence?

Four people who came to Hong Kong at different times and filed refugee claims were recently rejected at the same time. They have 14 days to appeal, but could face imminent detention and deportation.

One is from the Philippines, and the others are from Sri Lanka. The one common thread is that they helped house NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden for two weeks in their homes when he was in Hong Kong in 2013.

Edward Snowden hid in Hong Kong for two weeks

"The Immigration Department rejected their cases on the foundation that the department did not believe the asylum seekers assisted Mr Snowden... The decisions are completely unreasonable," said Robert Tibbo, their Canadian lawyer, accusing the government of not complying with international obligations.

It seems the Immigration Department reactivated these four cases after the story of the four harbouring Snowden was revealed last September in a story in the National Post and in Oliver Stone's film Snowden, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who has also appealed for help for the refugees.

The movie and the media have shone a spotlight on the plight of refugees in Hong Kong which is hardly a walk in the park. Many refugees are in limbo in the city for many years, unable to work, waiting for their cases to be processed. Some get desperate and start dealing in drugs which increases their chances of getting caught and if they do, they can find themselves in even worse situations.

Joseph Gordeon-Levitt in the movie Snowden

In the case of these four, Tibbo believes his clients were singled out for helping the former NSA and CIA contractor.

"I felt they already had the decision to reject the clients written up a long time ago... Their screening was expedited not to protect them, but to dispense their cases," he said.

However, a spokesman for the Security Bureau said the "accusation that the Immigration Department targets any particular claimants or categories of claimants is unfounded and not true."

He said the Immigration Department will continue expediting the screening of claims "with a view to clearing the backlog of claims pending screening as soon as possible."

As of March, there were 8,956 claims pending decision.

When the four heard their fate, they have been terrified ever since, worried that they may be deported at anytime.

They have already lodged applications to Canada and are waiting to hear back -- and we hope for their sake they will hear some good news very soon.

Snowden Shines Spotlight on Asylum Seekers

Edward Snowden criticizes Hong Kong on its treatment of asylum seekers

Edward Snowden has popped up again, this time criticizing the Hong Kong government for its treatment of asylum seekers in the city.

The former National Security Agency contractor speaks from experience, as he was sheltered by three groups of asylum seekers when he was in Hong Kong for two weeks in 2013, after he had fled the United States.

In an interview with Canadian news outlet Ricochet Media, Snowden described the poverty, "discrimination and repression" suffered by asylum seekers in Hong Kong.

Snowden criticized the fact that the were not allowed to work in the city, and so they were left "hungry and destitute" as they waited for their claims to be processed.

They cannot work and have barely have enough to live on

At the time he was housed by a Filipino family, as well as a family and a man from Sri Lanka, who are still asylum seekers.

"Hong Kong is one of the richest cities in the world, yet I saw refugees struggling through days, whose poverties were punctuated by discrimination and repression," Snowden said.

"It seems beyond imagination that a government could deny people the right to work for a wage while also refusing them money to eat, instead providing food provisions that were wholly insufficient to survive on, and often spoiled and out of date, but that's how the system worked there."

Food provisions have since been replaced with supermarket coupons worth HK$1,200, along with a monthly housing allowance of HK$1,500 per adult, transport expenses averaging HK$200 per person and HK$300 for utilities.

"Today food coupons and food debit cards with a limited value per month are provided to the asylum seekers, but again it is far from below what is required to survive on. So asylum seekers in Hong Kong are still left hungry and destitute today," he said.

It's an issue Snowden is passionate about because not only was he grateful for these asylum seekers' help in housing them even though they could be caught, but also he could easily have been one of the 10,815 asylum seekers in Hong Kong seeking to have their refugee claims processed.

Activists give voice to asylum seekers, but is anyone listening?

"In my own case, I was told it could take a decade to process an asylum claim," Snowden recalled. "Try to imagine that, if only for a few seconds. For the next 10 years, you'll be arrested if you dare to work, but you're on your own to find sufficient food, to pay the full rent, to pay the full utility bills.

"How long could you last? There is a kind of law which is itself criminal, and this is a clear example," he says.

In Hong Kong asylum seekers are a group of people that literally live on the fringes of society. They aren't very visible, and if they are, it's because they were arrested for selling or trafficking drugs because they were desperate to make extra money to just be able to survive.

Locals hardly ever come into contact with these people, who are not encouraged to integrate, or work -- God forbid they take away jobs from Hong Kong residents.

Aside from refugee activists, Snowden is the only high profile person to speak up for these asylum seekers and educate people on their sad plight in the city.

Greater awareness will hopefully build momentum to shame the government into looking after these people better -- though locals would probably think there are many other more pressing issues in the city to fix first!