The young women, who have given themselves the names Reem and Rawan, have been granted the right to remain until early April
Reem and Rawan (pseudonyms) have been on the run from Saudi Arabia and their family since September. Two sisters stranded in Hong Kong while on the run from Saudi Arabia and their family have been allowed to stay in the city until early April, SCMP has learned.
The decision buys the pair, who go by the pseudonyms Reem and Rawan, more time for their asylum request to a third country to be processed.
In a statement on Thursday, their lawyer, Michael Vidler, confirmed the pair would be allowed to remain in Hong Kong until April 8. But he noted that the Director of Immigration wrote in a letter that the sisters could be liable to prosecution and removal from the city.
“We feel like fish trapped in a little oasis that is rapidly drying out,” the sisters said in the same statement, referring to the letter from the immigration authorities. “All we want is to go to a third country place of safety without being ever fearful that the Saudi authorities and our family will find us and abduct us.”
Reem and Rawan were in transit to Australia in September but claimed to have escaped a kidnap attempt orchestrated by the Saudi consulate at the Hong Kong airport last September. Two months after their stay in the city, their Saudi passports were revoked, forcing them to remain in Hong Kong until now.
A source familiar with the situation said the Immigration Department had allowed the sisters to stay in Hong Kong till early April as “tolerated overstayers” on humanitarian grounds, after Vidler helped them apply for an extension of stay last Thursday – their initial deadline.
The department said it would not comment on individual cases.
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Vidler earlier said he hoped the sisters would be allowed to continue to stay pending determination of their application to a third country place of safety and that the emergency rescue visa would be granted soon.
“We are in fear every day we are in Hong Kong. We want to leave … as soon as possible,” the pair said in a statement released by Vidler and his firm last week.
The pair applied for an emergency asylum visa to an unnamed country in December. The applications were still being considered.