Community Participation Program – activity spotlight
Mar 24th, 2013 | VF updates, programs, events | Comment
Please click here to read the Newsletter
Dear Members, thank you for your support to the Health In Action (HIA). This project of Community Participation Program for Refugees is a pilot project to improve the psychological well-being of HK-based refugees by involving them in community services. According to the skills and talents of refugee members, we connect them to local HK communities particularly the disadvantaged groups of people through community services. This Activity Spotlight issue keeps our supporters informed about the latest activities under this project.
- Supporting Outreach Charity Sales Counter for the needy
- HIA awarded as “Outstanding Volunteer Team” for Charity Sales event with support of refugees
- Refugee musicians shared their traditional music culture to the Special groups of local community
- Members gathered to brainstorm what we can do more
- Clinical Psychologist and Health Education Specialist joined efforts to help psychological health assessment
- Legal Advisor helped provide professional legal advice and develop important documents for the project
- Coming in March: Refugee members will help development of the disadvantaged children through tutoring and music training
For new members: if you want to join this program, please email Eva Lam hiaevalam@gmail.com
Hong Kong grants torture claimant protection; only the second ever
Mar 23rd, 2013 | Media | Comment
Joyce Man writes for South China Morning Post on 23 March 2013
Sri Lankan no longer faces deportation;
rights advocates say ruling offers others hope
The city has accepted its first torture claim since enhancing its screening system four years ago, a move that advocates of asylum seekers view as good news, yet far from sufficient. The Sri Lankan man’s claim is only the second to have been approved in Hong Kong out of more than 12,000 applications the government has received since 1992, when the city began applying the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. The first claim was approved in 2008. The man, whose name cannot be disclosed for confidentiality reasons, received his approval from the Immigration Department on Thursday, his lawyer Peter Barnes told the South China Morning Post yesterday. This means the government will keep the man from being returned to Sri Lanka, where he faces risk of torture. “[The man is] very happy and relieved. He’s been waiting for this for a long time, and it requires a great degree of persistence and faith,” said Barnes. “Obviously, it’s good news for him, but it’s also good news for the system, which has finally recognised that there’s a person who’s in need of protection,” said the lawyer, a specialist in human rights law at Barnes & Daly. “I hope that now they’ve recognised one, they’ll be prepared to recognise others who are equally deserving of protection.” The Sri Lankan is also the first torture claimant in Hong Kong to win approval at the first try. The 2008 case was approved only after an appeal ruling in court.
The man’s approval covers his entire family, said Cosmo Beatson – executive director of Vision First, an organisation that supports asylum seekers in Hong Kong – who had spoken to the Sri Lankan. Despite being “thrilled” that the Immigration Department had accepted the claimant, Beatson said one was not enough. Hong Kong’s current acceptance rate was just 0.03 per cent, far away from those of developed countries, he said. “[The screening system is] still a work in progress,” said Barnes. “[Lawyers here who deal with these issues believe that] there are many more people who are deserving of protection but who are being denied.” “I think [the Sri Lankan’s approval] will give a little bit of hope that it’s a viable system,” said Tony Read, chairman of the Refugee Concern Network, who explained that there had been a growing concern about the system’s effectiveness. “But there’s still a long way to go, because when you look at the statistics, it’s not very encouraging at all.” Hong Kong introduced a mechanism in 2004 to screen torture claims. The system was enhanced in 2009. The Immigration Department could not be reached for comment yesterday as an enquiry was placed after working hours.
The CAT winner at the March for Protection in October 2013
One is not enough
Mar 22nd, 2013 | Advocacy | Comment
Today we have breaking news. We are delighted to announce that a Srilankan family’s torture claim was accepted by Immigration Department this afternoon. This event is a milestone in Hong Kong asylum history: they are the first recognized claimants at First Instance, the first family with children, the first victory since May 2008 (when the courts forced an acceptance), the first time that the right to work is talked about, the first case that wasn’t bumped to UNHCR for speedy acceptance … the first crack in the dam! Today the suffering that Karan and his family endured for seven years ends. Today Vision First and the refugee community celebrate a stunning victory! We heartily congratulate Karan’s family on this unforgettable day!
However, we shall never forget the prolonged, exhausting and desperate delay they suffered since seeking asylum in 2005. At this stage, to ensure anonymity, we cannot divulge anything about their background, case and protection process. Suffice it to say that Karan is one of the staunchest VF supporters and we have fought, side by side, many battles against the injustice that plagues the city’s disorganized two-track asylum system. Over seven years this family suffered unnecessarily the pains of exile – with insufficient support and even less compassion – dislocated by the failures of double screening: UNHCR with the Refugee Convention and Immigration with the Torture Convention. The day Hong Kong breaks the chains of this bipolar disorder can’t come soon enough.
It is great news that one family has had his torture claim accepted by Immigration department … but one is not enough. Putting this into proper prospective, one family out of over 3000 rejected cases since Jan 2010 remains wholly unacceptable and unreasonable. We are yet to see any acceptance rate that approaches even one percent. Today’s result yields a tiny fraction that, rounded off, remains effectively a zero percent recognition rate, no matter how you look at it. This statistic comes nowhere near international acceptance rates as found in other developed countries. Immigration still has a mountain to climb before the refugee community believes they are really implementing an informed, fair and efficient screening system clear of the culture of rejection we witness. For this results to be meaningful, we expect to see monthly acceptances. This small victory ensures that Vision First will double its effort to see Justice prevail in our city.
Boston “The Atlantic” — Hong Kong No Friend to Asylum Seekers
Mar 19th, 2013 | Media | Comment
Joyce Man writes for The Atlantic – a liberal American magazine founded in 1857 in Boston, USA
Stuck in the territory in legal limbo, a number of political refugees have begun to speak out.
For eight years, Bawah ran. A minority in his West African country, he ran from the Bimoba tribe. He ran at night and in the rain, and when they fractured his left hand. Finally in 2005, fearing for his life, he ran much, much farther — to Hong Kong.
But now Bawah faces the opposite problem: His life has ground to a halt. First, he failed to get refugee status at the UN Refugee Agency and lost his appeal. Then, he applied to the Hong Kong government, asking them not to send him home for fear of torture, and lost. As he prepared to appeal, the system for screening claims like his was ruled unfair and went into hiatus. When it started again, he lost. In all, he has spent the same amount of time in limbo as he did running.
“I fled after moving within my country failed,” said the former teacher, 40, who asked to be identified by his nickname for fear of recrimination from the authorities. “In a fire, people flee through a door without knowing what will be on the other side. What I did not know was that I would fall into another fire.”
Here’s how Hong Kong’s system for vetting asylum seekers works or, some would say, doesn’t. The Refugee Convention does not apply to Hong Kong. Unlike many countries, it does not vet refugee claims, but refers them to the UN Refugee Agency. Since the UN enjoys diplomatic immunity, its decisions are not open to judicial scrutiny. The UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, however, does apply, so asylum seekers can make claims to the government under it. But this, critics say, has its own flaws.
Vision First, an organization that supports asylum seekers, estimates Hong Kong receives 2,000 of them per year. The UN agency says it receives about 300 applications for refugee status per month and approves, on average, 13.8 percent. Local Immigration Department figures show the territory received 1,174 torture claims last year and 88 so far this year, and allowed none.
But answers to some of Bawah’s frustrations could come soon, in a ruling from the city’s Court of Final Appeal in C, KMF and BF versus the Director of Immigration and Secretary for Security. The case, which concluded in early March and is awaiting judgment, challenges the government’s policy of referring refugee claims to the UN Refugee Agency. If successful, Vision First executive director Cosmo Beatson, says, it could be “a watershed moment”.
That’s not the only legal challenge against the system. In December, the court ruled that the government must consider whether an asylum seeker, if sent home, would be exposed to “cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment,” instead of only torture — which the local bar association called “highly significant.” A case arguing for the right to work for successful refugees and torture claimants will seek an appeal at the top court, and another one, on the right to an oral hearing in torture claims, might do the same.
“In the past few years, there’s been a real quake in system which has shaken the legal landscape and brought to the fore … the fact that refugees have rights,” Vision First executive director Cosmo Beatson said.
The outrage generated by what he calls the “zero recognition rate” is one factor prompting the legal challenges. Of 12,300 torture claims that the immigration department has received since 2004, when it introduced its first torture screening system, only one has been approved. That, Beatson says, does not jive with asylum recognition rates of 20 to 38 percent in liberal democracies.
“Is this system is so unfair that it’s not refined enough to find the genuine ones?” said human rights lawyer Mark Daly, who represented the plaintiffs in all these cases except the one ruled in December. “We’ve got young guys spending the best years of their lives in limbo. The system is failing them.”
The Security Bureau said it was “not apparent that there should be any correlation between the number of substantiated claims and the standard of fairness or effectiveness of the screening procedures.” Under the existing screening and statutory mechanism, it said, claimants are given “every reasonable opportunity” to make their case and can get publicly-funded legal assistance.
It said Hong Kong was small and had a dense population. Its unique situation, with its relative prosperity compared to the region and liberal visa regime, would make it vulnerable to abuse if the Refugee Convention were extended to it.
The bureau said it was studying the December ruling and seeking advice from the Department of Justice.
Simon Young, professor and director of the University of Hong Kong’s Centre for Comparative and Public law, said that while the territory was “a beacon,” especially in Asia, it was slow to recognize refugee rights, probably due to its experience with Vietnamese refugees. “Thus, when compared to other developed countries, Hong Kong is behind and has adopted asylum law protections in reverse order.” Other countries started with refugee protection, following by “complementary protection,” for those who are not found to be refugees but who still face a risk of other harm if sent home. Hong Kong started with the latter.
Advocates say they have yet to see results. “It’s like a hospital that sets up a flow chart on how to handle patients but everybody dies or gets discharged without getting healed,” Beatson said. “You can hire physicians and get X-Ray machines, but if nobody is healed, it’s failing.”
Untold Stories on youtube
Mar 17th, 2013 | VF updates, programs, events | Comment
click above to play video
Refugees can be sent to persecution under Hong Kong law
Mar 8th, 2013 | Advocacy, Media | Comment
Joyce Man writes for South China Morning Post on 8 March 2013
The principle of not sending someone to a place where they may be persecuted has never been part of Hong Kong law, the government said yesterday. Benjamin Yu SC was speaking on behalf of the Immigration Department and the secretary for security at the Court of Final Appeal, where three African men were making a final bid to change how applications for refugee status are handled in the territory. Hong Kong is not a signatory of the United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. The government does not take applications for refugee status, but instead refers them to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
When the UNHCR finds in favour of someone claiming refugee status, the government can allow them to stay pending resettlement. But this would be on humanitarian grounds, rather than out of any obligation. “Non-refoulement,” Yu said, referring to the principle, “has never been part of the common law in Hong Kong.” Vaughan Lowe QC, also for the government, said even if the court found non-refoulement was a rule in Hong Kong, it would be up to the government to decide how to meet the obligation. He said there was “no reason” why the UNHCR should not handle refugee claims in Hong Kong. The appellants – from the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Republic of Congo – had their applications for refugee status and subsequent appeals rejected by the UNHCR.
They filed applications for judicial review but lost those, as well as appeals against those decisions. They argue the UNHCR screening process is inadequate and that its decisions are not open to judicial scrutiny. Hong Kong, they say, must make its own decision regarding their claims in an informed, fair and accountable manner. Refugee support workers are waiting anxiously for the court’s ruling. “We are definitely watching it closely,” said Cosmo Beatson, executive director of refugee support group Vision First. “The case is vitally important.” The case was heard before Mr Justices Patrick Chan Siu-oi, Roberto Ribeiro, Robert Tang Ching, Kemal Bokhary and Anthony Mason.
Article 5. “No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”
Hong Kong should help refugees live in dignity
Mar 5th, 2013 | Immigration, Media, Welfare | Comment
