HK refugees who aided Snowden face deportation
Print Edition
A group of refugees who sheltered US whistleblower Edward Snowden in Hong Kong are facing deportation after the city’s authorities rejected their bid for protection, their lawyer said yesterday.
The impoverished Philippine and Sri Lankan refugees helped the former National Security Agency contractor evade authorities in 2013 by hiding him in their cramped homes after he initiated one of the largest data leaks in US history.
They have spent years hoping the government would recognise their cases and save them from being sent back to their home countries, where they say they were persecuted. However, immigration authorities have rejected their protection claims. “The decisions are completely unreasonable,” their lawyer Robert Tibbo said.
Tibbo said their cases had been rejected because their home countries were deemed safe.
The refugees have said previously they were specifically asked about their links to Snowden by Hong Kong authorities.
“We now have less than two weeks to submit appeals before the families are deported,” said Tibbo alongside the refugees.
He said there was a risk his clients could be detained and their children placed in custody.
After leaving his initial Hong Kong hotel bolthole for fear of being discovered, Snowden went underground. He was given food and accommodation by the refugees for around two weeks.
Their stories only emerged late last year. The group includes a Sri Lankan couple with two young children and a mother from the Philippines and her 5-year-old daughter.
The adults say they experienced torture and persecution in their countries and cannot safely return. However, Hong Kong is not a signatory to the UN’s refugee convention and does not grant asylum.
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