On 17 September, ISS Tanya Sze visited Rosy and her newborn baby in the Slum with the Honeymoon Room. Tanya approved the rundown hut and failed to offer a safe, clean and legal alternative. With a trick question, Tanya asked the mother, “Do you want to leave?” Fearing being homeless with a baby and to avoid confrontation, Rosy confirmed she wanted to stay. Tanya registered the answer she needed.
Tanya made no effort to relocate this family to a basic, decent room. Refugees live destitute and in fear of losing welfare assistance as they cannot work. As a result, they hold on to the only place they can afford, even tin shacks. When sleeping in the street is the alternative, huts are palaces. ISS Norma Chan led another refugee to a partitioned chicken farm and warned offensively, “You have no choice!”
The Social Welfare Department recently wrote, “ISS-HK has contacted over 110 asylum seekers and refugees who are living in areas not for residential purpose, and has been strenuously discussing with them for alternative accommodation. All service users concerned however prefer to stay at their current abodes which are secured by themselves.”
It is disingenuous these strenuous discussions amounts to offering a choice between living in the slums or sleeping in the streets – for adults and children alike. It is unreasonable to ask refugees “Do you want to leave?” without offering adequate rent and security deposits. Refugees cannot secure regular rooms when they don’t have two dollars to rub together. If Tanya and Norma can sign 1200$ leases without deposits and agency fees, then they are pulling tricks others cannot.
Through its own mechanism, over many years ISS-HK has systematically placed refugees into slums located across the New Territories. ISS has actively continued to do so despite the initial Ping Che slums were exposed to the public in May 2013. ISS sanctioned these illegal slums, putting refugees into inhuman, degrading and inherently dangerous conditions.
Before the slums were exposed to the public, ISS-HK had never asked anyone to leave the slums. It was only after they were exposed that ISS started asking residents to move out of known slums. This effort was clearly an ad hoc attempt to make the slums disappear. Of significance however, ISS continues to systematically push refugees into other slums not yet exposed by Vision First.
Further, ISS-HK created previous conditions that forced hundreds of refugees into shacks, namely, ISS refused to provide the necessary financial and in kind assistance to ensure basic necessities were met. ISS has never agreed to provide rental deposits and full financial assistance to allow any of the 110 asylum seekers to move out of illegal structures.
Currently ISS-HK is settling refugees into guesthouses. ISS is promoting rooms in Chung King Mansion that were banned as insalubrious in 2010 while the secretive slum policy expanded away from the public eye. Today outlying slums are more troublesome for ISS than seedy guesthouses that are nonetheless legal.
It is shocking that the ISS-HK blames refugees for staying in slums when it is obvious they have failed to secure residential flats with long term leases for them to relocate to. It is also apparent that the Social Welfare Department has failed to inspect the various slums to ascertain the actual zoning, living conditions and circumstances that ISS has sanctioned for refugees with government funds.
For six and a half years our situation is unchanged here. Each day we die and wake up again. Why? Because we don’t have any choice. We are very peaceful people. Everyone respects the law. We are only waiting for a fair decision from the Immigration Department.” – Tariq, Pakistan
The wasted eight years of mine. Nothing (can explain this). I don’t know how to explain that feeling. It’s so bad. You keep somebody here. He cannot work. He just stays at home. Now I have no future. I am just waiting for my two kids’ future. That’s all.” – Ibrahim, Togo
A half hour walk into the fields from the waterway south of Yuen Long, is a ghostly shantytown. It has a hard reputation. Triad gangs have attempted to control this area and clashes have erupted which authorities cannot break up in this remote area. Many refugees have left this isolated area to live closer to town.
Currently twenty refugees from Nepal, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh live here. They hate this area and want to move away, but don’t have money to secure better homes. Owned by two brothers and a sister, this shacks are falling apart with rot and corrosion. It is hard to tell what this area used to be, probably a shanty-town abandoned by local residents in years gone by.
There is a sense of desolation that wasn’t experienced in other clusters. Perhaps the history of this place is darker than usual. Something unsettling kept us on edge as we visited these refugee homes that still felt ‘temporary’ after three or four years of inhabitation.
ISS would be hard pressed to demonstrate that these residents want to stay in these remote shacks. The residents told us that they want to move but homes are too expensive and they are trapped in this miserable place. This is a sad, depressing site we were happy to leave.
A fresh protest outside the offices of a government contractor dealing with the welfare of asylum seekers has passed off peacefully. More than 50 asylum seekers joined rights group Vision First to complain about a new distribution policy they say is leaving them hungry.
International Social Service Hong Kong (ISS-HK) recently increased the number of times asylum seekers can collect food from the service, from three to six times a month. But users of the service say they are not receiving any more food than they were before the increase.
One asylum seeker, who wished to be identified only as Jenat, said yesterday she could not manage to feed herself or her three children. “It’s punishing,” she said. “We can’t eat all the time, sometimes only once a day because we don’t have enough.” “Most of the service users are satisfied with this change,” said ISS-HK in response to the protest. “There are individuals who … consider it troublesome to collect their food six times a month.”
The contractor will address “legitimate” concerns, it said. “This new policy oppresses refugees through the manipulation of food supplies,” said Cosmo Beatson, executive director of Vision First. “The alteration [in collection times] masks a reduction in groceries supplied.” A previous demonstration ended in scuffles with police as protesters attempted to storm ISS-HK’s office.
Asylum seekers plan to go on hunger strike next month outside Legco offices ahead of the expected announcement by the government of sweeping changes to welfare provision.
Asylum seekers clashed with police in August after the International Social Service Hong Kong Branch refused to meet them. Photo: Felix Wong
The child of refugee parents from Africa looks on during a protest to demand changes to a food distribution that they say fail to meet refugee needs in Hong Kong on September 2013. Hong Kong may be one of Asia’s wealthiest banking and luxury hubs, but the picture is very different for hundreds of asylum seekers forced into slum-like conditions as they scrape a living in the city, say campaigners. AFP PHOTO / Philippe Lopez / Getty Images
On 15 July refugees protested at ISS Mongkok against being made homeless with disregard of women and children. On 2 August refugees took their action to ISS Prince Edward to oppose slum housing that condemns hundreds to dangerous living conditions. On 24 September, Vision First assisted refugees to apply for a police notice to protest outside the ISS Tsuen Wan office.
Changes to food distribution were the trigger point, though widespread dissatisfaction with welfare assistance has mobilized the community over the summer. Demonstrations appear to be building up towards a meeting with the Legislative Council Complaint Section on 15 October and the second session with the Legislative Council Panel on Welfare. Refugees are keeping up the pressure.
Public meetings attended by more than 50 persons require a police notification. This removes the element of surprise and much spontaneity from any manifestation. There was also the certainty that nobody would be allowed into the building, let alone the ISS office, a disappointing though inevitable drawback. Refugees were frustrated, but abided the law.
On the street, 80 protesters were matched one-for-one by the police, including a dozen CID officers who paced nervously, keeping refugees under vigilant watch. The authorities designated an acceptable protest zone by the building entrance. Most demonstrators obliged, though many roamed the streets displeased with the overwhelming police presence. And backup vans were around the corner.
Several refugees had made appointment with caseworkers before the protest was announced. Those appointments were duly cancelled. Others phoned in to visit and were told staff was away. ISS was determined to neither negotiate, nor acknowledge any complaints. That was final! Previous experiences made ISS intransigence clear. The demonstrators had no illusions today would be different.
With police mediation, attempts were made to set up a meeting with ISS bunkered down in state of fear. Assurances were made that refugees came in peace. Besides, it seemed that all the Tsuen Wan police revolvers were on Chuen Long Street! At 4pm a delegation of a Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Srilankan and two Africans ventured upstairs with a police escort. The aim was to express these points:
Refugees are not allowed to work
Refugees depend entirely on ISS assistance to survive
Refugees receive insufficient rations of poor quality food
Refugees oppose the change from 3x to 6x a month food collection
Not a big deal by any account. The delegation was not impressed by the door ISS bolted before them. It was a repeat of the Prince Edward stonewalling treatment. Such tactics were disappointing to everyone and infuriating to some. The obstruction to talks was absolute. ISS staff were instructed to bunker down. Alas, an opportunity to sit down and talk was missed. ISS, the agent of social oppression, stood proud!
To avoid escalation, refugees informed the police the stalemate had to be broken. It was suggested that ISS send down ONE delegate – somebody to hide behind police shields, if need by – to listen to the pleas of those they serve. That was the absolute minimum the demonstrators would accept to call it a day and keep frayed emotions from swelling.
The ISS leadership relented realized it was a reasonable demand. Mr. Ben Hon, Security Manager, was delegated to descend to the street and hear it straight from the crowd. The protesters were seriously disappointed at his sight and asked for the manager or a case worker instead. Regrettably, for reasons other than diplomacy nobody else would give respect to highly vulnerable refugees. Another sad day for ISS.
Caught between a rock (no work permits) and a hard place (insufficient food), refugees are degraded and forced to beg. The Culture of Rejection is strong. Immigration has rejected 3,644 torture claimants since December. The 1200$ rent assistance hardly secures a hut in the slums. The food supplied is insufficient and often spoiled. The cost of schooling and medical care are not fully covered. There are no provisions for clothes, shoes and other daily necessities.
However, 15-22 month incarceration are guaranteed for those who risking part-time work. Does any resident wish to experience this struggle just for one month? It is apparent that only a HUNGER STRIKE will draw adequate attention to the hardship that is exasperating refugees by intent and by design.
The wasted eight years of mine. Nothing (can explain this). I don’t know how to explain that feeling. It’s so bad. You keep somebody here. He cannot work. He just stays at home. Now I have no future. I am just waiting for my two kids’ future. That’s all.” – Ibrahim, Togo
