Bangladeshi refugees' 'unliveable conditions' appals activists
Bangladeshi asylum seekers, claiming torture in their homeland, scratch out shabby existence
Twelve Bangladeshi asylum seekers are enduring "unliveable conditions" in Ping Che that should shock the government into doing more for a community excluded from society, local human rights activists say.
Their compound is pest- infested and lacks proper sewerage. Officials must take drastic action before the stark existence of these Bangladeshis worsened, said Vision First, an NGO that advocates rights for people seeking protection, and human-rights barrister Robert Tibbo.
We are being treated like animals. We have [done] nothing wrong, so why should we be treated this way?
Vision First executive director Cosmo Beatson said: "These dangerous, dirty, unliveable conditions must be exposed as a matter of social justice, because Hong Kong has an obligation to treat fairly those who seek asylum here. They are invisible to society."
The men, who are between 23 and 40 years old, all claim to have been victims of torture. They each pay rent of up to HK$1,400 a month to live in roughly built shacks, accessed via narrow paths that pass stagnant streams, in the compound in the northeastern New Territories. One miserable room housed a mother and her three-month-old baby.
Plumbing is non-existent. Kitchens, showers and toilets flow into open conduits infested by insects and rodents. The residents wait for the rain to wash the conduits clean.
"We are being treated like animals," said Ali, 23. "We have [done] nothing wrong, so why should we be treated this way?"
The compound is one of several housing more than 150 South Asian refugees in the Ping Che area. There are similar shanties in Nai Wai, Kam Tin and Pat Heung.