This website contains the words of asylum seekers in Hong Kong. There are some 7000 recognized asylum seekers in Hong Kong; most are from South Asia or Africa. Asylum seekers, upon entry into Hong Kong, often turn to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, which has an office in the city, to declare themselves as asylum seekers. Many asylum seekers also turn to the Hong Kong government to file claims, since Hong Kong is a signatory of the Convention Against Torture.
Claims often take three or more years to evaluate. Once they have surrendered themselves to immigration authorities and emerged from a brief period of detention, asylum seekers can obtain from the Hong Kong government minimal rental assistance and groceries each month. On this amount it is possible to survive, but only barely.
Asylum seekers are not allowed to work in Hong Kong, although some do anyway since it is so difficult to survive otherwise. Asylum seekers’ dream is to obtain refugee status in another country, most typically Canada or the United States; but very few are able to attain this status. Meanwhile, they wait, and wait, and wait, forbidden to use their skills to benefit the society they find themselves in. This website tells their stories.
This is a story of one asylum seeker from Cameroon. He was seeking political asylum in Hong Kong under the UNHCR since 2005. His case was rejected, and finally was closed in 2005. And he was arrrested by the Hong Kong immigration and detained for almost a year.
When he was bailed out, we found that he had changed. He was psychologically changed. He was not the same person we used to know. He was depending on the church, until he decided to go home, because his case was rejected from UNHCR and then was no outcome from Hong Kong immigration on his CAT case. Eventually, he left, to face the consequences that waited for him at home.
Before the end of the year 2011, news reached us in Hong Kong that he was dead. He was a good person, friendly. He was our classmate here in the Christian Action globalization class. He was here in Hong Kong for protection, but they couldn’t protect him.
The rest of the African communities here in Hong Kong send our condolences to his family.
I ask myself, what was the cause of his death. I don’t know.
On behalf of SEEKING REFUGE HK, we wish to express our deepest sympathy for those who loss their love ones in Manila last Monday. We offer our condolences to the people of Hong Kong, may every consolation be given to you in your great loss.
Kindly accept our deepest sympathy.
Sincerely Yours
DIXON
(Website administrator)
In Tak Ko Tsui Road I was physically attacked by five Pakistani men. This happened at night time on July 25th 2008. These men attacked me because of religious issues. They knew that I had converted from Islam to Christianity, so they beat me up. I remember that day clearly. I was walking to my home in Shum Shui Po. I remember passing Ivy street seeing a Circle K. It was here where these men started to fight me. They were swearing at me in our language, while hitting me. I was running away, from one street to the next. While I was running I was trying to talk to the police on my phone. Shouting that I had a problem – that some people were trying to kill me. I was trying to run into restaurants to get help. But when I tried to get through the glass door to these Chinese restaurants, the door man would push me away and tell me to leave. They rejected me, with people behind me trying to beat me up.
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From 2008 until now my church has supported me with many of my problems. Every month they support me financially with 600 dollars. I am really thankful for this church because their pastors, their community is great. Every Tuesday and Wednesday my African, Sri Lankan, Indian and Nepalese brothers come along to this church. Many people in need are supported. The Vine Church has given help to all people.
First of all I was born within a farming family. My education is up to a high school level. My professional jobs include a bulldozer operator, truck driver, excavator operator and a crane operator. But here in Hong Kong, the only thing I operate is a rice cooker. Morning, afternoon, evening, I’m doing nothing here, wasting my life. I have been in the construction industry since middle school. I was also a truck driver in Saudi Arabia and in Malaysia. I enjoyed that line of work very much, because it was my job. First of all, by working I felt physical fit; my heath was good because I was very happy with my job. I also had enough money for myself and my family. But mostly a job gave me something to do. Even when I was working until mid night, sleeping little, life was busy and active. Life had some kind of meaning. My son is now 6 and a half years old living in Philippines and I cannot even help him with a single cent. I’m broke in Hong Kong. How can I support my new daughter, everything that I get is from Christian Action. I’m the father, but it is Christian action that is providing for my family. How do I support them? There is no way I can.
I had two professions. The first one was teaching. After my college training, I entered into teaching. I taught in many parts of country. From the North to the South of my country. The subjects I taught were social studies, English, life skills and vocational skills. These were my areas. In fact, it was a profession that I liked very much. Because, any time I was in the class I was a passionate person. I did this job with passion. Through this work I was able to help the schools in many ways. Building the schools foundation. As well as the skills I taught the children, like vocational skills.
My other profession was as a building technician. In this job I worked with the department of rural housing and the cottage industry. My main responsibility was in building clinics, schools and markets in rural areas. I worked in this job for about two years. My position was technical supervisor. Within this capacity I was involved in numerous projects working with various NGO’s like World Vision International and the Program of Action to Mitigate the Social Cost of Adjustment (PAMSCAD). It was an initiative that was schemed to alleviate poverty in the rural areas. It was also a department that linked the urban and rural areas together. That is bringing together the basic necessities to rural folks. Those were some of the professional experiences I had when I was in my country.
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First of all, after my national service teaching in Ghana, I involved myself in my families’ traditional occupation, which was domestic animal trading. I traded animals like cattle, sheep, goats and even ducks. That was what I used to do, bringing these animals from our village to the city. I used to sell them in the market and sometimes to restaurants.
However, besides this I also concentrated on my professional skills which are graphic designing and painting. I should also mention that I have a background in theology and comparative religion – focusing on Christianity, Islam and traditional African religions. But back to my main passion – art. I started working with graphics and painting in primary school. I used to do basic thread designs and some paintings. In fact, lots of paintings. When I got to junior secondary school, I had to upgrade my skills. It was that time that I leant more deeply about painting.
Painting created by the author of this blog
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