UNHCR must decide its last refugee claims in Hong Kong
Aleta Miller says the transfer of work to HK officials will unfairly prolong process for some
With the announcement of a unified screening mechanism to process protection claims, the UN refugee agency's office in Hong Kong is preparing to hand over the determination of refugee status to the government. In this transition, the UNHCR has an obligation to be accountable to asylum seekers who have already undergone interviews and are awaiting a decision on their claim.
Since 1979, the UNHCR has been deciding such claims in Hong Kong given the government's lack of interest or intention to determine claims and the fact that the Refugee Convention has not been extended to Hong Kong (it applies to the mainland and Macau).
However, a landmark decision by the Court of Final Appeal in March forced the government's hand, ruling that it should determine asylum claims. The Immigration Department is expected to put in place a unified screening mechanism by the end of the year, bringing together asylum, torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment claims under one process.
Although this is largely a positive development, a number of outstanding issues deserve concern. Perhaps the most pressing is what will happen to those who have already lodged asylum claims with the UNHCR; it has more than 1,300 open refugee claims. At least 300 of these have finished their screening interviews, and are simply awaiting decisions - some for more than two years. However, UNHCR Hong Kong says it plans to hand over most of these cases, and the 1,000 or so other claims, leaving the Immigration Department to start the interview process again.
The UNHCR has a responsibility to hand down decisions to those asylum seekers who have completed the refugee status determination process. People seeking asylum have to endure lengthy and invasive questioning, often with repeated interviews, and at times need to recount details of traumatic incidents such as torture and rape. Asylum claimants rightly expect that the agency will give them its decision.
To do otherwise is unfair and unjust. The government can help the agency finalise these claims, including by considering letting the agency continue processing these cases for some months after the new screening mechanism takes effect.
Claimants would otherwise be forced to stay in Hong Kong even longer. This isn't good for asylum seekers, or Hong Kong, which would have to continue to provide them with welfare assistance. And taxpayers will foot the bill for the processing of these claims, even though the UNHCR has already done the work. The agency needs to step up, and finish what it started.
