Data on asylum seekers detained in Hong Kong should be disclosed more proactively, legal expert says
- Legal scholar Surabhi Chopra says research efforts showed public information on immigration detainees was harder to find than data for prisoners
- Researchers made hundreds of access to information requests to authorities, with mixed success retrieving ‘basic information’ regarding immigration detainees
A legal expert studying Hong Kong’s immigration detention facilities has called on authorities to be more proactive in disclosing data, saying it is a “real concern” that information on those held in custody is not readily available.
Surabhi Chopra, an associate professor at Chinese University who specialises in forced migration and rights of the poor, said her research led her to conclude that it was even harder to find public information on immigration detainees than on prisoners.
While the Correctional Services Department (CSD) keeps basic statistics on the demographics of prisoners on its website, Chopra and her team had to dig through annual reports and file hundreds of access to information requests to try to get similar data on immigration detainees.
“I can sympathise that civil servants are very busy and collating information can be time-consuming. But the concern that I really want to emphasise is this is such basic information from a rule of law perspective,” Chopra said during a recent interview.
In some instances, simple data such as length of detention for asylum seekers, their nationalities and the cost of running detention facilities were not made available even after several exchanges with authorities which sometimes lasted up to weeks, if not months.