Legal Aid office accused over bid to deport mother, girl
The Legal Aid Department was accused yesterday of complicity in the attempted forced removal from Hong Kong of a mother and her 31/2-year-old daughter who are taking the department to court after being refused legal aid.
The mother and daughter were taken into custody on Thursday and forced to board a Cathay Pacific flight due to leave for Manila at 4.30pm. Minutes before departure time, Mrs Justice Verina Bokhary issued an order restraining the Director of Immigration from deporting the daughter.
Aaron Nattrass, chairman of the Hong Kong Human Rights Foundation, said yesterday the girl, Janine Shaina Ma, and her mother Teresita Trumpo Failano, 39, were due to appear in court on August 18 to appeal against the department's refusal to grant them the funds to fight a deportation order against Janine.
Janine, who was born in Hong Kong, has been unable to get permanent residency as her supposed father, a Hong Kong permanent resident of Pakistani origin, has refused to sign a copy of the birth certificate or provide maintenance.
Mr Nattrass said there had been a 'massive conflict of interest' when the Legal Aid Department responded to a letter on June 4 from the Immigration Department by saying it would not object to the removal of the mother and daughter on Thursday.
'They were co-operating to remove her and her daughter,' Mr Nattrass said. 'It was wrong that the Legal Aid Department should act in such a way to affect the removal of an opponent in an upcoming Legal Aid appeal. It is scandalous.' The Legal Aid Department said it was unable to comment.
Mr Nattrass also said that when Ms Failano tried to see a Legal Aid lawyer to establish that her daughter's case had merit, she was only able to see a clerk.
He said Ms Failano had located her daughter's alleged father and wanted to start proceedings to prove Janine's birthright.
The Legal Aid Department's duty lawyers were faced with a large workload, '[but] every applicant needs to be seen and interviewed by a Legal Aid lawyer to conduct their merit test', he said, adding it was a 'very, very important duty'.
He said his foundation would petition the Legislative Council to ask for a full inquiry.
All moves to deport the daughter have been halted until a court hearing next Friday.
It has also been revealed Ms Failano sustained deep bruises to her wrists and forearms, which she claimed were inflicted by officials who dragged and pulled her by the handcuffs. They also pulled her hair, punched her arm and kicked her in front of her daughter after separating the pair, she said.
Medical reports from Queen Mary Hospital doctors show that they also treated the toddler for an injury to her right wrist and swelling to the left eyelid.
