Rights expert argues the government must treat asylum seekers fairly
A prominent world expert on refugee rights has condemned the city's lack of a legal framework governing asylum seekers.
Barbara Harrell-Bond, founder of Oxford University's Refugee Studies Centre, was especially critical fo the lack of a framework to provide children seeking asylum with an education.
'Even if the government wants to keep refugees out, unfortunately it can't,' she said. 'Refugees will still come to Hong Kong. The answer is to find a fair and effective way to solve [the problem], otherwise the outcome will be more tragedy.'
Dr Harrell-Bond, who came to Hong Kong last month to support calls for legal aid for asylum seekers, said every government had a duty to provide asylum.
She said it was unacceptable that the process in the city could drag on for years and that there was no proper way of providing an education to school-age asylum seekers.
Setting up a system to handle applications could eventually save the government money, she said, as the flow of claimants was likely to increase and a proper framework could allow the applications to be dealt with more quickly. Legal aid was also very important.
