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議員斥免遣返聲請遭濫用 黎棟國:盡力防止

Oct 29th, 2015 | Crime, Government, Immigration, Media | Comment

TVB on Legco questions on USM (28Oct2015)

Security Bureau reply to Hon. Ip Kwok-him in Legco

Oct 29th, 2015 | Crime, Government, Immigration, Legal | Comment

SB reply in Legco to Ip Kwok-him(28Oct2015)

 

Annex 1 – “Figures on on-refoulement claims”

Annex 2 – “Expenditure for screening non-refoulement claims”

Security Bureau reply to Hon. Paul Tse in Legco

Oct 29th, 2015 | Crime, Government, Immigration, Legal | Comment

SB reply in Legco to Paul Tse (28Oct2015)

Alarm over rise in dubious Indian refugee claimants

Oct 29th, 2015 | Immigration, Media | Comment

Standard - Alarm over rise in dubious  Indian claims

VF comments to questions in Legco on 28 Oct 2015

Oct 28th, 2015 | Government, Immigration, Rejection, VF Opinion, Welfare | Comment

VF comments to Legco questions on 28 Oct 2015

Homeless refugees and locals spend nights in McDonald’s

Oct 28th, 2015 | Housing, Media, VF Opinion, Welfare | Comment

Homeless refugees, both new-arrivals and veterans, frequently spend nights in McDonald’s especially during cold winter months. Prohibited from working and inadequately supported by the Social Welfare Department, a growing number of refugees are becoming homeless and sleeping in parks, passageways and under flyer-overs. McDonald restaurants are the only establishments that offer safety and comparable tranquility overnight. Similarly to impoverished residents, refugees huddle up on benches with their few belongings after midnight and return to the street at the crack of dawn, before their presence inconveniences breakfast customers. It is disgraceful that Hong Kong Government fails to support its poorest citizens and reduces refugees to dehumanizing destitution. 

BBC - McRefugees of Hong Kong

Hong Kong-based photographer lifts the veil on refugees in New Territory slums

Oct 28th, 2015 | Housing, Media, Personal Experiences, Welfare | Comment

Coconuts - photographer lifts the veil on refugee slums

Brainwashing through wrong questions

Oct 27th, 2015 | Advocacy, Crime, Immigration, Personal Experiences, Refugee Community, Rejection | Comment

Hello, this is Outsider. I’m writing again because I find that the article published by The Standard on 5 October 2015 is misleading, as it mixes up the issues of seeking asylum and seeking employment. The reporter writes about dodgy agencies in India that promise work though asylum visas. The featured website claims, “Hong Kong Asylum Visa.”

As a refugee I am deeply disappointed with the government propaganda broadcasted by the media reporting illegal activities by refugees who are then called indistinctly: illegal immigrants, criminals, job seekers and abusers of the asylum system. The Immigration Department is always ready to make press releases when it arrests claimants working (link).

Some people consider the above to be true. Some people get angry and try to advocate and defend refugees. In interviews, journalists should ask more revealing questions. For example, they should ask: Why are some refugees forced to work? Why do some refugees commit crimes? Why do some refugees get involved with drugs? I hear many advocates answer with reasons about the lack of government assistance, including the biggest problem: high rents in Hong Kong.

It seems to me that many fail to grasp the bigger picture. Is it possible that the wrong questions are asked and the wrong answers given? There is no doubt that government propaganda is winning the day, by shifting the focus on a small minority of refugee caught breaking the law.

But are we the real problem? Would the problem be solved and the debate end, if no refugee ever committed a crime (NB: working illegally is criminalized)? Are refugees the root of the problem, or is the system a problem? Is stopping refugees from working and committing crimes the answer to wasting hundreds of millions of dollars in the failed welfare/legal system?

To repeat, working illegally, committing crimes, joining gangs and pushing drugs are the external, visible symptoms of the illness which is the failed USM and welfare system. The real question is why journalists are not researching and reporting on the failed USM and the welfare/legal ramifications?

Is it possible to heal the illness by just treating the symptoms? Can the truth be uncovered by asking the wrong questions? What are the underlying problems that government propaganda is avoiding?

People who wish to understand the big picture might ask: Why did two thousand Vietnamese who were working illegally, recently applied for asylum? Why are criminals and drug dealers masquerading as refugees? Why are dodgy employment agency offering “Asylum Visas”?

There is a subtle difference between asking these two questions: 1) Why are refugees working and 2) Why are illegal workers claiming asylum? For uncritical readers it is a question of semantics. For the government it demonizes refugees. For some citizens it is proof of abuse. For a refugee fleeing persecution, the difference is life and death and an unbearable life in Hong Kong.

It appears that the government is astutely orchestrating propaganda to cast refugees in a bad light and turn public opinion against the refugee community. I am worried that the constant negative reporting and Immigration press releases are brainwashing the public and generating a ‘push back’ sentiment that will unfairly harm refugees stuck in this hostile city. The article below should be titled “Twenty-two immigration offenders arrested – as 37 refugees offered protection out of 17,000 claimants since 1992”.

 

Brainwashing through wrong questions

ATV News Magazine “True and Fake Refugees”

Oct 26th, 2015 | Housing, Immigration, Media, Refugee Community, Rejection, Welfare | Comment

English translation by a HKBU student

ATV News Magazine - True or Fake Refugee (24Oct2015)

The plight of refugees living in slums

Oct 23rd, 2015 | Housing, Media, Refugee Community, Welfare | Comment

HKFP - The plight of refugees living in slums in Hong Kong

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