Hong Kong refugee problems become increasingly serious Refused to be refugees port
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2016-06-28 19:44:11
While Europe grapples with an influx of people desperate to escape fighting in Syria, asylum seekers from Asian nations such as Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Vietnam are flocking to Hong Kong, along with a sprinkling from Africa.
Hong Kong has approved just 52 of more than 8,000 claims since 2009.
There are more than 11,000 asylum seekers in the Asian financial hub, some still uncertain about their fate after waiting for more than 15 years.
"Our future is already gone, so we are thinking of our kids' future," said Adjouma Ibrahim, chairman of the Refugee Union, who has been in Hong Kong for 11 years. "Our kids are stateless. We don't have travel documents - nothing," he told Reuters.
Ibrahim is from Togo in west Africa, and his son and daughter, despite both having been born in Hong Kong, are among the more than 580 refugee children denied the right of abode, making it impossible for young people to get jobs or leave.
Hong Kong pays 30 percent of the costs for refugee children to attend school, but few parents are able to pay the rest, as they cannot legally work while waiting for their status to be approved.
"One of the very negative parts of the system here in Hong Kong is children of asylum seekers and refugees," said Mark Daly, a principal at law firm Daly and Associates, which focuses on human rights.
Despite being born in Hong Kong and fluent in both English and the Cantonese regional dialect, they are not allowed to work, Daly said.
The refugees have become a sensitive topic for residents and politicians, with media often blaming them for a spurt in crime. Such portrayals feed prejudice, said Rizwan Ullah, an educational adviser of the Pakistani Students' Association in Hong Kong.
"These stereotypes bring prejudice, and that brings discrimination," he said. "These guys are not criminals. They just want a better situation."
Politicians have pushed for tighter curbs after the government adopted a screening mechanism in 2014 to select those meeting the refugee criteria set out in international law. However, in a legislative document this year, it acknowledged the need to streamline the lengthy screening process. Over the past five years, it has more than doubled the number of staff handling claims.