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Snowden lashes out at HK for rejecting SL, Filipino refugees

19 May 2017 05:24 pm - 5     - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

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Fugitive whistleblower Edward Snowden hit back at the Hong Kong government on Thursday for rejecting the protection bids of a group of refugees including Sri Lankans who sheltered him while he was hiding out in the city, the AFP reported.

The impoverished Philippine and Sri Lankan refugees helped the former US 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 Hong Kong government would recognise their cases and save them from being sent back to their home countries where they say they were persecuted.

But the family of four, a mother and her daughter and a single man saw their protection claims rejected Monday by the city’s immigration authorities, which said there were “no substantial grounds” for believing they would be at risk if they went home. They now face deportation.

“These are good people that were driven from their homes by torture, rape, abuse, blackmail and war, circumstances that are really difficult for us to imagine,” Snowden said in a video released Thursday.

“Now what they’re facing is a transparent injustice from the very people that they asked to protect them,” he said.

“Someone in the Hong Kong government has decided that they want to make these families disappear immediately, no matter the cost,” Snowden added in the video.

He has been living in exile in Russia since the summer of 2013. Russia’s immigration service in January extended Snowden’s residency permit to 2020.

The refugees’ lawyer, Robert Tibbo has called the decision by Hong Kong authorities “completely unreasonable”, and said he had less than two weeks to submit appeals before the families were deported.

He said there was a risk his clients could be detained and their children placed in government custody.

Hong Kong is not a signatory to the UN’s refugee convention and does not grant asylum.

However, it is bound by the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (UNCAT) and considers claims for protection based on those grounds.

One of the refugees, Vanessa Rodel from the Philippines, who lives in Hong Kong with her five-year-old daughter, broke down over the news of the decision.

Another of the refugees, Ajith Pushpakumara from Sri Lanka, told AFP the government had “taken his whole life”.

Lawyers for the Snowden refugees have separately lodged an asylum petition with the Canadian government and are calling for to be expedited.


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  Comments - 5

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  • Genuine Sri Lankan Friday, 19 May 2017 09:25 PM

    I had some sympathy towards this guy but I have lost that as he is trying to paint a bogus picture on Sri Lanka. These asylum seekers must have another reason to be scared to go to their mother country.

    Ahmed Saturday, 20 May 2017 10:22 AM

    seems like sri lankan passport will be the worst passport in the world for another 50 years thanks to economic migrants who makes stories about sri lanka. why on earth they need asylum in hong kong ? we dont have a war in lanka anymore.

    Rabbit Saturday, 20 May 2017 01:40 PM

    Sadly, your idiot lawyer put these people in trouble. What took to worse was when the refugees' Canadian lawyer tried a fast one by falsely claiming SL Police were searching for them in HK to file a bogus claim to get acceptance in Canada. In fact, their lawyer attempted to use your escapade as ruse to get these people enter Canada. So blame the lawyers not HK anchorites.

    RD Saturday, 20 May 2017 08:49 PM

    I totally agree with you. I think Sri Lanka policy got know about these Sri Lankans after the lawyer published that claim against SL Police.

    seqi Sunday, 21 May 2017 09:23 PM

    If Sri Lanka isnt good enough for them let them go...better to work with the willing than malcontents.....time will tell if theyll have regrets....Sri Lanka is slowly ever so slowly coming to terms with itself. via DM Android App


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