Beijing should consult with Hong Kong on pulling out of UN torture convention, ex-security chief says
Ambrose Lee Siu-kwong suggests central government should talk with Hong Kong about pulling out of agreement so as to curb abuse of asylum application system
A former Hong Kong security chief has sparked controversy by suggesting Beijing consult with the SAR on pulling the city out of a UN convention under which it is obliged to offer protection for foreigners who claim they would be tortured if they returned home.
Ambrose Lee Siu-kwong, a delegate to the National People’s Congress, has floated the idea with the central government after calls from pro-establishment politicians to curb what they see as an abuse of the city’s asylum application system.
Lee, who was secretary for security between 2003 and 2012, said he expected a reply from the NPC Standing Committee within three months.
But whether the move that even Lee himself admitted could hurt the city’s image would be effective has been called into question. Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee, another ex-security chief, noted that dissociation from one legal document would not mean Hong Kong could get out of obligations to protect tortured people as there were other common law principles that allowed claimants to avoid immediate deportation.
Rights advocates lambasted Lee’s suggestion as short-sighted and as a disregard for human rights that risked hurting the city’s international reputation.
“Hong Kong’s torture claim mechanism has been abused and is causing a burden on its security and finance,” Lee told journalists in Beijing.
“The central government should consult with Hong Kong on whether to quit the Convention Against Torture [and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment].”
He said many claimants “know how to procrastinate” to stay in the city to claim about HK$3,000 in monthly subsidies.
“An increasing number of claimants have participated in criminal activities,” he said, noting that “less than 1 per cent” subsequently qualified for a claim.
The current system of screening asylum seekers started in March 2014, with a backlog of 10,922 cases. Some 5,400 people have been screened so far.
In January, Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying said Hong Kong would, “if needed”, unilaterally withdraw from the convention signed by 158 of 193 UN member states. He pledged a review of the system dealing with claims for refugee status and asylum.
Ip – who was Lee’s predecessor – said what Hong Kong should be doing was asking the Foreign Ministry to speak to countries where most of the asylum seekers were coming from in order to plug the flow at the source.
Even if the convention which Hong Kong ratified before the 1997 handover ceased to apply, Ip, an executive and legislative councillor, said Hong Kong’s Basic Law and two other international treaties would continue to oblige Hong Kong to process torture claims.
“The procedural hurdles under the common law system cannot be overcome,” she said.
Law Yuk-kai of Hong Kong Human Rights Monitor questioned Lee’s knowledge of the issue, saying many of the current problems – including the long waiting time for the screening process – stemmed from the flawed system set up during Lee’s term as security chief.
“That screening mechanism was in the end overturned by the top court,” he said. “If blame should be placed, it should be on his bureau.”
