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Victims of sexual trafficking

Jun 12th, 2011 | Advocacy | Comment

My name is Dorothy and I’m from Uganda. I would like to tell you about black young girls on Hong Kong streets caught in the criminal web of sexual trafficking. Most of these girls are from East Africa, i.e. Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. I have become friends with many who consider me their mother as I was a social worker and I understand their plight. Now I want to help them break away from the slavery of prostitution. When you look at the streets 70% of the black girls are from this region as visas are granted upon arrival in HK. It’s so sad when you see them working the streets, desperately trying to find men so as to be able to earn money for the African pimps who control them. These girls dress seductively and very provocatively in order to capture people’s attention. In fact, they are so convincing  that you are tempted to talk to them and see what they are trying to sell to you. Most of these girls are brought to Asia by very greedy and manipulative ‘businessmen’, who are actually conmen in suits, who disguise their human trafficking agenda until they reach HK. These tricksters promise beautiful, young girls in Africa that in Hong Kong they will obtain working visas for employment in supermarkets, hairdressers, trading companies and the like. They prey on the naïve and as long as work remains scarce in this countries, they will always find new victims to fool with a convincing employment lie. The job offers come with high salaries, benefits and a promise that life will be so much better than what their ‘targets’ have known back home. Little do these hopeful girls know their dreams will all come crashing down!

CIA World Factbook – Uganda: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ug.html

Caught in the web of sexual trafficking
Victims of sexual trafficking

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UNHCR “Making a difference” video

Jun 12th, 2011 | Advocacy | Comment

UNHCR Making a difference
UNHCR Making a difference

Can you spot the refugee?

Jun 12th, 2011 | Advocacy | Comment

Can you spot the refugee?

Anyone Can Be a Refugee: Khaled Hosseini (The Kite Runner)

Jun 12th, 2011 | Advocacy | Comment

I have heard it said that anyone can become a refugee.  I have never doubted the truthfulness of this statement, since I am a refugee myself. They also say that no one wants to become a refugee or thinks they will.  This is also true.  Certainly I never suspected that I would become one when I was growing up in Afghanistan. But I did.  The Soviet invasion of my homeland forced my family to seek asylum in the U.S. where I have lived for the past thirty years.  But I belong to a small and fortunate minority.  The vast majority of refugees around the world are not granted the privilege of coming to the U.S. and becoming a published author.  For most of them, life is an ongoing struggle.

This is the reality.  There are currently 43 million people around the world who have been displaced by war, persecution, or violence.  This figure includes the 740,000 people who have been forced to flee Libya since February.  43 million is a staggering number and represents a humanitarian displacement crisis the likes of which we have not witnessed in recent history. Many of these refugees come from countries beset by protracted wars complicated by sectarian violence and ethnic strife.  Many will remain refugees for years; indeed the average length of stay in a refugee camp is an astonishing 17 years.  Nearly half of this refugee population is comprised of women and children, particularly young girls.

According to UNHCR, more than 17 million children under the age of 18 are now living as refugees.  Many of these children have witnessed horrors the likes of which most of us could not fathom.  They have been victims of abuse and neglect.  For young girls, there is the additional risk of gender-based violence.  In many regions, war is accompanied by rape, forced marriage, sexual trafficking, enslavement and other atrocities.  80 percent of them, and other refugees, live in impoverished, developing countries that have their own economic struggles and pre-existing ethnic and sectarian strife.

CIA World Factbook: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/af.html

Khaled Hosseini speaks to refugees who have returned to Afghanistan.
Khaled Hosseini speaks to refugees who have returned to Afghanistan.

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Quenching the thirst for knowledge

Jun 4th, 2011 | Advocacy | Comment

Perhaps one of the worse enemies for our members is, time. The wait between the time that a case is accepted for consideration to when a decision is made may linger for years, and this is without counting the time it takes to be resettled after refugee status has been granted. Some of our members, for example, have been in Hong Kong for over seven years, waiting for an initial decision, while others that have been given refugee status have had to wait for over five years. During this time, however, they do not have governmental authorization to work, or support for attaining technical or tertiary education that will undoubtedly help them in their future resettlement. Instead, many face constant boredom and consequent depression because of the lack of intellectual stimulus and a sense of achievement which work and education can provide.

The UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights particularly advocates for the fundamental right to education, but tertiary certification programmes cost a considerable sum, and thus, without governmental subsidy and permission to register in Hong Kong’s higher education institutions, this useful and necessary human right is kept from the deserving population. Many of the local NGOs have indeed risen to this challenge over the years by providing languages courses, but recently our members have shown an increasing thirst for other educational opportunities. Despite the near-impossibility of finding certificate granting courses from tertiary institutions, however, there are still many self-study options available on-line from some of the world’s top universities that share courseware for subjects ranging from anthropology and physics to marketing, philosophy and many more—all free of cost! A list of these institutions is attached below. VF also helps to provide guidance for selecting courses and linking interested members with mentors including students, teachers, and professionals in relevant fields.

Aside from this, VF now also has a growing library of fiction books at our homebase with new titles coming in every week courtesy of the Flow Organic Bookshop. There are also many websites that offer free e-books ranging from fiction to non-fiction, text-books, reference books and audio books; some of these can be reached through this link:

Download free books:

Free Books Online

Self-learning Programs without Certification:

Free Distance Learning Programs


UNHCR message for World Refugee Day – 20 June

Jun 4th, 2011 | Advocacy | Comment

Dear Supporters –

UNHCR turned 60 on 14th December 2010, kicking off a year of special activities to commemorate all the achievements we have accomplished over the past 60 years.  The highlight of all the activities this year will of course be World Refugee Day on June 20.  This will be a day on which we express our care and concern for refugees and other displaced people around the world. In Hong Kong, we will commemorate this special day with several exciting activities. Please come and join us!

UNHCR 60 Years Photo Exhibition                                                                        

Date: June 18-29
Time: 11am – 7pm
Venue: Central Oasis,
Central Market, Central

To commemorate this historical moment, we are organizing a “UNHCR 60 Years Photo Exhibition” at Central Oasis. Every picture tells a compelling story about the life of someone who UNHCR has helped.  The opening ceremony of the exhibition will be held on June 20 and we are pleased to have UNHCR Honorary Patron for China,  mainland actress Ms Yao Chen to be the guests of honor.

Details for the opening ceremony

“Be a Refugee” Event

Date: June 19
Time: 10am-1pm
Venue: Kowloon
Donation: $50

“The rebels are coming, run!”  Without a second thought, you flee from your home. Frightened, thirsty, hungry, and with no idea where your family members are, you must find your way…

During this unique challenge in “city orienteering”, you will try to reunite with your family members and locate essential food, water and shelter before time runs out! Step into the shoes of refugees and experience their journey. Please email your interest in participating in the “Be a Refugee” event to info@unhcr.org.hk or call 23883278.
*The exercise will be conducted in Cantonese, and is best for those 18 or above.

4th Refugee Film Festival                                                                  

Date: June 19-23
Time: Evening
Venue: Broadway Cinematheque, 3 Prosperous Garden, Yaumatei, Kowloon

The 4th Refugee Film Festival will be held at Broadway Cinematheque. Five films from around the world with refugee related stories will be screened. This year’s diverse features cover, among other things, genocide in Rwanda, separation of the Palestine territory and the lives of two Myanmarese refugee families who have resettled in the United Kingdom. The opening movie- “Sergio” tells a story about a humanitarian worker who devoted himself to upholding human dignity and was tragically killed in a bombing attack in Iraq. Don’t miss these inspiring and heart-rending movies!

Refugee Film Festival website

Get your ticket now!

In addition to participating in the events above, we sincerely invite you to help UNHCR by promoting World Refugee Day to your families, friends and companies. It’s as simple as displaying and circulating leaflets and posters, offering a free web banner advertisement in your website/blog, or promoting the events through our Facebook fans page – UNHCR Hong Kong!

We sincerely hope to see you at the World Refugee Day events! If you have any questions, or need more information, please call 2388 3278, or email info@unhcr.org.hk.

HK must sign UN Refugee Convention now

Jun 4th, 2011 | Advocacy | Comment

South China Morning Post “Opinion“, May 29, 2011

Hong Kong is a natural draw for people seeking a better life. A healthy, free-wheeling economy, easy access from most parts of the world and a liberal visa regime make an appealing mix for people from all walks of life, their intentions legitimate, lawful or otherwise. Among the millions who arrive each year are a small number fleeing persecution because of who they are, what they are, or their beliefs. In keeping with our strong rule of law and good human rights record, the government should be making the job of distinguishing those with genuine claims straightforward.

This has not been done. Hong Kong has still not signed the UN convention on refugees, contending that doing so would make our city vulnerable to abuses. That leaves the 6,740 people seeking asylum and the 2,000 or so more who arrive each year marginalised. While their claims are being heard, they should have the same rights as other foreign residents; instead, they live hand-to-mouth existences with their lives uncertain and to all intents and purposes wasted during what is invariably a shamefully slow, years-long process. They cannot work and will be arrested and jailed if caught doing so. Their only means of survival are a HK$1,000 rent allowance from ISS [edited: originally UNHCR] and the goodwill of charitable groups and friends. That leaves most living in pitiful conditions and at risk of falling prey to criminal gangs.

Over the past two weeks, this newspaper has told of the lives, good and bad, that asylum seekers lead. There was Samim, 28, one of 50 Bangladeshi torture claimants living near Fan Ling, whose life has been on hold for five years awaiting a decision on his case. We revealed that South Asian asylum seekers have apparently been recruited to sell cocaine around the bars and nightclubs of Central and Wan Chai. And there was the rare success story of Duvalld Ndilou, 21, from the Republic of Congo. He was unable to speak English when he arrived six years ago but has graduated from a scholarship programme at the English Schools Foundation’s Renaissance College and has been accepted by an Australian university to study nursing.

Even though the government last year bowed to criticism and a court ruling, ensuring that claimants finally receive legal aid and a duty lawyer and can appeal, the screening process remains painfully slow. At the present rate, it will take 31 years to clear the backlog. International rights have to be upheld and cases handled fairly. But the grindingly slow process is sending the wrong message to those wishing to take advantage. We have to sign and ratify the convention and ensure a ruthlessly efficient and fast system. This way it will be plain the world over that only genuine asylum seekers need apply.

Inside Varsha's home
Inside Varsha's home

Connecting refugee families worldwide

May 27th, 2011 | Advocacy | Comment

Every day, families are torn apart in their escape from war, persecution or natural disasters. All too often they end up in different parts of the world, afraid, alienated and alone. Refugees United is a fully independent non-profit organization working to provide refugee families with a global, anonymous and user-driven tracing system to help them reconnect with missing loved ones. All asylum seekers and refugees can register on the Refugees United search site using information such as nicknames, scars, former locations and the like that is recognizable. A layer of anonymity means members who have fled their home countries in fear can preserve their safety while still sharing enough information for family and friends to be able to find them.

In light of the widespread use of mobile technology throughout Africa, Refugees United, has launched a mobile version of their application. The mobile site allows users to easily access the application via mobile phones and low-bandwidth internet; four short video tutorials, available through their website show how to use the service. One of the founding brothers, David Mikkelsen tells: “The idea came about when I was helping a young Afghani refugee called Mansour trying to locate his family a couple of years ago. While doing so, my brother and I realized this possibility of an online tracing tool where you could go in, do a profile, giving out information that you’re only comfortable with.” The site has since attracted thousands of users. But in order for it to develop further, the Mikkelsen brothers knew they had to reach audiences who did not have access to a computer and the internet. “We’re doing a pilot on how to do search and registration via mobile phones. Not just via smart phones, but actually also by the old school text messaging system. Even in the most remote refugee settlements,  almost everyone has a mobile phone now.”

You can visit their site here http://www.refunite.org/

Searching for missing friends

The shanty towns of Hong Kong

May 26th, 2011 | Advocacy | Comment

Chris Ip writes in SCMP on May 22, 2011

Popular belief has it that to find the dispossessed who have come to Hong Kong to flee political or religious persecution, the best place to look is the crowded streets of Kowloon. A word in the right ear in Yau Ma Tei, Jordan, or the infamous Chungking Mansions can gain you access to a thousand stories of political turmoil and brutality spanning the globe. However, of the city’s roughly 7,000 asylum seekers, torture claimants and refugees, at most 1,000 live in Kowloon or Hong Kong Island. According to Cosmo Beatson, co-ordinator of NGO Vision First which works with those seeking refuge, the majority live a meagre existence in shanty towns dotted across the New Territories. Around Yuen Long, Tuen Mun, Fanling and Sheung Shui, pockets of Somalis, Sri Lankans and Pakistanis can be found living in makeshift shacks.

The reasons are simple: the rent is lower and landlords are less rigorous about ID checks and down payments, normally a necessity in Hong Kong, where torture claimants cannot work. They are given a bag of food every 10 days and HK$1,000 monthly rent allowance from International Social Services. NGOs like Vision First help to provide medicine, clothing and bus fares to over 300 claimants. Still, the problem of how to pay for electricity, gas and basic goods weighs on them constantly. A prime example is the community of around 50 young Bangledeshi men living in the village of Ping Che, near Fanling. The men, who are all claiming they were victims of torture in their home country, pay around HK$1,000 for rent a month each for roughly built, legally questionable shacks. “He has air-con but cannot [turn it] on,” says one of them, Samim, gesturing to Uzzal, a fellow torture claimant, as the temperature hits 32 degrees Celsius. “Because of electricity, if the air-con is on he has to count 300, 400 dollars more a month.”

Out of the dozen torture claimants encountered, all but two have girlfriends who are Indonesian domestic helpers. The women support them financially, while the men’s humble shacks give their companions a place to relax on a Sunday. Their only other source of income is getting a few days’ work a month doing cheap manual labour. One said he could get up to HK$250 a day for dismantling computers. “Chinese people see our faces and they know we need money,” he said. A friend of his was jailed for 15 months when police caught him doing a similar job. Samim, 28, has been in Hong Kong for five years, waiting for his request for refugee status to be processed. He heard about the Ping Che hamlet from his family back home, who put him in touch with another Bangladeshi in Hong Kong. When he arrived in the village, he slept on the floor, shoulder to shoulder with 12 other claimants. Now he and one roommate share a house furnished with castaways: a pink sofa and a TV with a severed wire that he fixed. Samim also has a small fridge he got second hand for HK$350 to stop his rationed food going bad.

Samim’s landlord, a 73-year-old man, has lived in the village for 50 years. A carpenter, he built the two homes he rents to torture claimants on his own land. Uzzal is one of eight claimants living in a string of rooms that extend out of the back of another village house. In the backyard there is a kitchen and bathroom, and a pile of refuse they burn every few days. Down narrow paths and past stagnant streams is a shack with a corrugated iron roof bearing the Bengali words “place for prayer”. Inside, six Muslim teachers are eating chickpeas and rice. The faithful cannot afford an imam for their “mosque” so roaming teachers like Irfan Minhas – who spends 40 days a year on the road – come to teach them about the Koran and the Prophet Mohammed. The Bangledeshis each chip in about HK$10 a month for rent. “It’s up to you,” Samim explained. “If somebody cannot, that’s OK.” On Fridays – the holy day – Muslims from surrounding villages pack out all five prayer sessions.

Shohel, another Bangladeshi, said: “We live together, all the Bangladeshi people, and this environment we like. This looks like a village, like how we live in our country.” But days merge into one when you have no right to work, next to no money and could be sent home at a moment’s notice. “Most of the time is very slow, very boring,” Samim said. He might leave the village once a week to pick up food or check in with the Immigration Department, but he can barely afford the bus fare. Between December 2009 and the end of March 2011, 1,045 claims of torture were processed by the department. All were rejected. Beatson said: “Like the 1.5 million of Hong Kong’s poor, asylum seekers and refugees are vulnerable and marginalised, with a complete lack of support networks. Unlike Hong Kong’s poor, asylum seekers and refugees experience severe social alienation. A rich country has to live up to a higher standard.”

CIA World Factbook: Bangladesh https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bg.html

Ping Che shanty town 1

Ping Che shanty town 2

Inspiring Congo student faces final, harrowing test

May 26th, 2011 | Advocacy | Comment

Simon Parry writes in SCMP on May 22, 2011
Duvalld Ndilou, 21, who will study nursing after graduating from a scholarship programme at the English Schools Foundation’s Renaissance College, is believed to be the first asylum seeker in Hong Kong to go on to tertiary education. However, to get the visa he needs to take up his college place in Adelaide, he faces a harrowing return to the troubled West African nation he fled as a 15-year-old, unsure whether his family is alive or dead. His departure will also rule out a return to Hong Kong, where he has faced the daily threat of deportation while his asylum claim under the UN Convention Against Torture remains stuck in the system.
Duvalld escaped through a window when a masked gang burst into his home and abducted his parents and sister as part of an apparent political feud. A church pastor helped him flee to Hong Kong, where he has since had no news of his family, despite attempts to trace them. After registering as an asylum seeker in 2005, Duvalld first went to a local school before being urged by a charity to apply for a new Youth Empowerment Scholarship (YES) for disadvantaged youngsters at Renaissance College. “When I first went to school, my intention was just to understand English,” he said. “I knew I had to learn this language otherwise I was going to suffer. Later, some friends said to me `Why study? You can’t go to university’. I didn’t think it was possible either until I came to Renaissance College.”
Funded by teachers and donors including the Rotary Club of Hong Kong, Duvalld said going to university would transform his life. “I am very happy about it. I just want to be able to live life like everyone else does,” he said. “When I graduate I want to go back to the Congo and open my own clinic. I want to do something for the community.” Duvalld said he was nervous at the prospect of returning to his home country, also known as Congo-Brazzaville, but is determined to find out what has happened to his family. “I just hope they went into hiding and that I will see them again one day,” he said. Duvalld is the first student on the Ma On Shan college’s YES scheme and has been mentored by founding principal Peter Kenny, who will travel with Duvalld when he returns for his visa before starting early next year. “Many asylum seekers go to local schools but drop out,” Kenny said. “Duvalld has really stuck with it and shown a lot of courage and commitment. What he has achieved is a great credit to him and the people who worked around him.”
But his departure was Hong Kong’s loss, Kenny argued. “He will go to university and qualify and contribute back in a very meaningful way to his community. For me, that is a chance that Hong Kong has missed out on,” he said. “If he would go through some criteria and be granted permanent residency here, he would then be coming back and contributing to Hong Kong society. For the sake of a little investment by the government, there is a huge potential we miss out on.” Tiffany Sturman, education co-ordinator of the asylum seeker support group Vision First, which helped Duvalld, described his case as unique and an inspiration for other young asylum seekers in Hong Kong. “Many young people in this position are in limbo and it is hard for them to find the motivation to study when they are unsure what their next step is,” she said. “Hopefully this will show them that something can happen for them.”

Simon Parry writes in SCMP on May 22, 2011

Duvalld Ndilou, 21, who will study nursing after graduating from a scholarship programme at the English Schools Foundation’s Renaissance College, is believed to be the first asylum seeker in Hong Kong to go on to tertiary education. However, to get the visa he needs to take up his college place in Adelaide, he faces a harrowing return to the troubled West African nation he fled as a 15-year-old, unsure whether his family is alive or dead. His departure will also rule out a return to Hong Kong, where he has faced the daily threat of deportation while his asylum claim under the UN Convention Against Torture remains stuck in the system.

Duvalld escaped through a window when a masked gang burst into his home and abducted his parents and sister as part of an apparent political feud. A church pastor helped him flee to Hong Kong, where he has since had no news of his family, despite attempts to trace them. After registering as an asylum seeker in 2005, Duvalld first went to a local school before being urged by a charity to apply for a new Youth Empowerment Scholarship (YES) for disadvantaged youngsters at Renaissance College. “When I first went to school, my intention was just to understand English,” he said. “I knew I had to learn this language otherwise I was going to suffer. Later, some friends said to me `Why study? You can’t go to university’. I didn’t think it was possible either until I came to Renaissance College.”

Funded by teachers and donors including the Rotary Club of Hong Kong, Duvalld said going to university would transform his life. “I am very happy about it. I just want to be able to live life like everyone else does,” he said. “When I graduate I want to go back to the Congo and open my own clinic. I want to do something for the community.” Duvalld said he was nervous at the prospect of returning to his home country, also known as Congo-Brazzaville, but is determined to find out what has happened to his family. “I just hope they went into hiding and that I will see them again one day,” he said. Duvalld is the first student on the Ma On Shan college’s YES scheme and has been mentored by founding principal Peter Kenny, who will travel with Duvalld when he returns for his visa before starting early next year. “Many asylum seekers go to local schools but drop out,” Kenny said. “Duvalld has really stuck with it and shown a lot of courage and commitment. What he has achieved is a great credit to him and the people who worked around him.”

But his departure was Hong Kong’s loss, Kenny argued. “He will go to university and qualify and contribute back in a very meaningful way to his community. For me, that is a chance that Hong Kong has missed out on,” he said. “If he would go through some criteria and be granted permanent residency here, he would then be coming back and contributing to Hong Kong society. For the sake of a little investment by the government, there is a huge potential we miss out on.” Tiffany Sturman, education co-ordinator of the asylum seeker support group Vision First, which helped Duvalld, described his case as unique and an inspiration for other young asylum seekers in Hong Kong. “Many young people in this position are in limbo and it is hard for them to find the motivation to study when they are unsure what their next step is,” she said. “Hopefully this will show them that something can happen for them.”

CIA World Factbook – Congo: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/cg.html

VF's Tiffany and Duvalld at RTHK
VF's Tiffany and Duvalld at RTHK

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