Archive
I almost died in the slum fire
Feb 6th, 2015 | Housing, Personal Experiences, Welfare | Comment
I was a neighbour of Srilankan refugee Lucky who died in the slum fire on 29 January 2015. I lived in the second hut behind his and barely escaped the burning inferno alive. My name is Dillo and I am a member of the Refugee Union. I fled from India to save my life in 2008. This is my experience of International Social Service (ISS) and the hazards of illegal structure and the evil slum business.
At about 10am on that tragic day, I was asleep in my hut when the fire broke out. People knocked frantically on my door and woke me up. I took a great fright as the back wall of my room was starting to burn. I grabbed my mobile phone and ran outside while my hut and everything I possess burst into flames. It all happened so fast!
A huge fire was already burning inside and over the first two huts and was raging overhead with unbelievable heat and noise. The acrid smoke raced up to the sky turning it black. It was horrible to see the fire burn and crackle the metal sheets like plywood. Moments later my room was engulfed in a fireball and I thanked God the smoke didn’t chocked me before I escaped.
I covered my mouth and ran towards safety by the main road. At that time there was no police or firemen. They arrived about 30 minutes later. By then the fire was so huge that the huts could not be seen any more. Mia from Bangladesh had already come out of the second hut before me. We didn’t know what happened to Lucky who lived in the first one. He wasn’t outside. Anyone inside the flaming inferno wouldn’t be alive!
We lost a wonderful and cheerful friend. We also lost everything we possess: clothes, fridge, TV, a gold ring and bags of clothes my girlfriend stored in my hut. That night I slept in a friend’s room. The next day ISS put me in a guesthouse in Kam Tin, but for over two years my caseworker had settled me in a deadly tin-sheet hut.
On 22 September 2012 I moved into my hut and ISS paid the landlord continuously until January 2015. At the start the rent was 1500$. ISS paid 1200$ and I was compelled to work illegally to pay the surplus and utilities. Sometime in 2014 the rent increased to 1600$ and ISS paid the landlord 1500$ while I paid 100$. My girlfriend kept the tenancy agreements as I was afraid my hut was not safe. That is evidence of a trusting relationship between ISS and this slum lord.
My ISS caseworker (name withheld) confirmed the hut as my home in September 2012. He never inspected it. He never came to visit me. From September 2012 until the morning of the deadly fire, none of my ISS caseworkers ever visited my hut. When I asked the landlord for a copy of his ID card and bankbook, as routinely required by ISS, he said it wasn’t necessary because ISS knew him well.
From the day I moved into this slum I have been wondering: How does ISS believe where I am living? How do they approve places that they don’t inspect? Why do they trust the landlord to give us safe rooms to live? Some rooms have 3-4 refugees living inside, how can ISS understand this overcrowding without inspecting, without asking questions?
I never complained about the awful living conditions because I understood it was pointless. ISS don’t care and because they have relationship with the landlord they only trust him. They speak Chinese so when we have meeting together we don’t know what they agree. ISS approves everything for us.
Before we didn’t realize how dangerous living in huts was. We knew they were not safe, but we were afraid of rain and typhoon, not fires, because flooding is bad and there is electricity. I didn’t fear that I could burn in my sleep. Nobody thought the fire would be so violent. We understand that all is illegal inside, metal and wood sheets taken from landfills. But what choice do we have?
I am very proud of the Refugee Union as we spread the news so fast that our members arrived before the police. There had been fires in slums before, but the news never got outside. Two refugees died in two separate fires, but everyone kept it quiet. The victims were ISS clients. Some refugees still have photos of those fires and knew the deceased.
Refugee death in slum fire unveils a conspiracy
Feb 5th, 2015 | Crime, Housing, VF Report, Welfare | Comment
Vision First reports with great consternation that, between August 2013 and January 2015, the Social Welfare Department’s (SWD) contractor and agent, International Social Service (ISS-HK), increased collaboration with the flagrantly exploitative and reckless landlord of lot 451 (Demarcation District 106).
It appears to us that ISS-HK is fond of the false justification, which has been consequentially echoed in the media, that refugees choose to live in slums or ghettos and refuse to relocate to better accommodation because they prefer to live with their friends. This position needs to be carefully analyzed.
On 19 May 2013, the news of the existence of refugee slums in Hong Kong broke with the South China Morning Post article “Bangladeshi refugees’ unliveable conditions appalls activists”. It will soon be two years since then, over which time the Hong Kong authorities have done little or nothing to clamp down on what apparently amounts to a joint enterprise, between disburser (SWD and ISS-HK) and the landlords recipient of taxpayer money, to direct and settle refugees in openly dangerous and life-threatening agriculture and industrial infrastructures, in flagrant disregard and breach of the laws, rules and regulations governing zoning, authorized structures and fire safety.
Reliable evidence will be presented in due course to the relevant government departments to expose a business model that developed, prospered and self-reinforced, whereby the government and its agents allowed profit-generating income streams for slum lords, by way of exploiting the use of unauthorized structures erected to facilitate caseworkers’ task to settle homeless refugees with no negotiating power when ISS-HK imposed unrealistic and unreasonable rental budget limits.
Vision First contends that any person who has participated in the settling of refugees in slums up to and including the present day, should have known or have constructive knowledge of the dangerous conditions that have resulted in accidents and a recent fatality. Joint enterprise or conspiracy is where one or more persons immediately cause the actus reus of an offense, while others participate in it with the agreement to reach a specific objective, in this case the marginalization of refugees in slums.
If the joint enterprise or conspiracy is to settle refugees in slums, then it matters not which person in the conspiracy and/or joint enterprise is a SWD or ISS-HK caseworker, a real estate agent, a caretaker, a middleman or a registered owner of the slum. All parties involved are culpable.
The continued activities of SWD, ISS-HK, real estate agents, landlords and respective agents amounts to what is arguably continued criminality, while the government’s failure to carry out its legal duties can amount to misfeasance or malfeasance of public officials.
The following photos display the dangerous unauthorized structures erected between 2013 and 2015 by a landlord hellbent on profiting from rent paid by ISS-HK. It should be noted that all the refugees interviewed in this compound were on Immigration recognizance and registered service users of ISS-HK, who disbursed monthly rent assistance to this landlord (estimated at over 600,000$ yearly) presumably after carrying out due diligence with regard to accommodation and documentation.
RU calls protest against deadly conditions in slums
Feb 4th, 2015 | Advocacy, Housing, Refugee Community, Welfare | Comment
Show me your kitchen and I will tell you who you are
Feb 4th, 2015 | Food, Refugee Community, Welfare | Comment
Judgment DCCJ 562/2011 – Abid Saeed vs. ImmD and Police
Feb 4th, 2015 | Legal | Comment
On the conditions of the unlawful detention, I find that:-
(i) there was overcrowding conditions in places like the 1/F of CIC and the detention cells at Yuen Long and Tsing Yi Police Stations where the plaintiff was detained between 8 and 25 October 2006 but not at MTKDC;
(ii) the plaintiff was detained in places not designed for long-term detention between 8 October and 17 November 2006 (although the conditions in MTKDC was not as bad as those at 1/F of CIC and at the police detention cells);
(iii) he was deprived the opportunity of taking showers (save for once), change of clothing and brushing of teeth during his 44 days detention while at 1/F of CIC, police stations and MTKDC;
(iv) he had to sleep on the floor for a total of 3 nights at the Yuen Long and Tsing Yi Police Stations out of the 107 days Detention Period;
(v) some of the police cells where he had to stay overnight during the 17 nights, particularly those which were overcrowded, had foul smell due to the external flushing toilet system; and
(vi) save on a few isolated occasions, he was provided with pork-free meals during his detention.
In conclusion, I would enter judgment against the defendant in the total sum of HK$210,000 in this case.
His Honour Judge Andrew Li
Hazardous structures endanger life in the slum on two storeys
Feb 4th, 2015 | Crime, Housing, VF Report, Welfare | Comment
The death of refugee Sivarajah Sivatharan, known as Lucy, is drawing heightened attention to a slum where SWD contractor International Social Service (“ISS-HK”) settled him in collaboration with a purported landlord whose reprehensible exploitation of refugees must end.
Lucky was a Tamil who fled the war in Sri Lanka for the safety of Hong Kong. He was registered by ISS-HK for provision of welfare in September 2008. It is unknown when ISS-HK approved the unauthorized structure in which he met a burning death on 29 January 2015, though it is reported that he lived there for three years and the oldest signed contract we obtained is dated 23 August 2013.
Over 30 refugees are presently settled in dangerous illegal structures erected on Lot 451 (rear portion) in Demarcation District 106 in the village of Ng Ka near Kam Tin. This repugnant arrangement degenerated markedly since our first report in November 2013 on “The Slum On Two Storeys”.
Documents obtained by Vision First suggest that the landlord bought this lot in late 2001 for 580,000$ after previous pig and chicken farming licenses were revoked. Around 2010 the landlord entered into a questionable, but highly lucrative arrangement with ISS-HK and, according to our calculations, earned more than 600,000$ a year in refugee rent assistance paid from the government purse.
The smug and arrogant landlord allegedly informed the Ng Ka Tsuen community chairman that he will rebuild the three burnt huts and rent them again. It is unclear whether ISS-HK will be in a position to continue its dubious relationship with this slum lord, let alone approve new shacks built over the site of the fatal accident after relevant authorities intervene.
Following the fire that took the life of Lucky, the refugees living in this slum raised a litany of grievances about the dangerous, unsanitary and inhumane conditions they endure:
- Dangerous overcrowding since 2010 pushed up occupancy from 20 to 35 refugees;
- The landlord displays good rooms to caseworkers, but lodges refugees in bad ones;
- Additional rooms were erected hazardously in empty spaces to maximize rental profit;
- Sanitary conditions are appalling with plastic bucket for showers;
- Certain rooms are little more than coffin-size cubicles on stilts with no standing space;
- Unbeknownst to ISS-HK, the landlord allocates more than one refugee per room;
- One unit with two small rooms is rented to 4 refugees forced to share 2 beds for 6000$;
- One unit with two small rooms is rented to 5 refugees for 6000$;
- Dangerous gas cylinder for cooking inside cubicle rooms with no windows;
- Appalling sanitary conditions with plastic buckets for showers;
- The landlord provided this heating devise for tenants to warm water to shower;
- Unsafe electrical works are concealed from view in closets;
- Obstructed, narrow passages would ensure a death zone in a fire at night;
- Overhead storage of flammable material present a serious fire hazard;
- Highly combustible foam-boards and plastic covers partition all cubicles;
- Lack of fire-fighting equipment and fire exits from the second storey;
- The landlord charges each refugee about 500$ on top of the 1500$ rent assistance;
- The landlord charges each refugee two months deposit on top of what ISS pays;
- The landlord overcharges refugees for electricity use using dodgy meters;
- The landlord refuses to issue receipts for the cash he collects from refugees.
Refugees raise doubts about ISS caseworkers systemically approving countless tenancy agreements for such apparent unauthorized structures. Especially when refugees report they are rarely: (i) visited in the rooms; (ii) asked to supply proof of ownership as required by SWD; (iii) asked how many of them are allocated to each cubicle. (iv) this obviously poses challenges to confirm the existence of basic functional facilities for cooking and washing and the overall safety of the cubicles.
Vision First urges relevant authorities, including the Social Welfare Department and Lands Department, to urgently clamp down on this dangerous slum and provide refugee tenants with the means to effectively compete in the rental market without having to resort to renting a room in another slum.
The least owed dearly departed Lucky is that his friends do not fall from the pan into the fire.
