From the DW:
“'Snowden refugees' in Hong Kong
dream of safety in Canada:
As Edward Snowden releases his
memoir, refugees who sheltered him in Hong Kong in 2013 are still stuck in
limbo. Now facing deportation, they hope Canada will offer them protection. In
a tiny one bedroom apartment in downtown Hong Kong, 7-year-old Sethumdi and her
3-year-old brother Dinath are playing hide-and-seek under the bedcovers. Sethumdi
was just a baby, and Dinath was not yet born, when their parents' home became a
hiding place for former US intelligence contractor turned whistleblower, Edward
Snowden. "He needed help," father Supun Kellapatha, told DW. "We are human, right?" He and his
wife, Nadeeka Nonis, met in Hong Kong after they both fled persecution and
abuse in Sri Lanka over their political opinions. They were used to helping new
refugees on arrival. Then one day in 2013, the family's immigration lawyer,
Robert Tibbo, arrived at the door with his client Edward Snowden. They
immediately agreed to let Snowden stay, and took care of him in Hong Kong
before he fled to Moscow. Although the refugee family soon realized that
helping Snowden was risky, the magnitude of what he was doing strengthened
their resolve to help, despite the danger. "First we helped him as a human
being — as a refugee — because he had nowhere to go. But we also made an extra
effort to take care of him because we think he did the right thing."
Unsafe in Hong Kong
However, after the Hollywood film
"Snowden" was released in 2016, the family's already difficult life
as refugees in Hong Kong took a turn for the worse. Upon seeing their role in
Snowden's story revealed in the movie, they decided along with Tibbo to make
their identities public — in the hope that transparency would be the best form
of protection. "When things are hidden, the most horrible things
happen," Tibbo told DW, adding that they had expected Hong Kong
authorities to adhere to the city's rule of law and protect the family. "We
didn't expect that the authorities, who were supposed to protect my clients,
would do the opposite." Tibbo said that after the family went public, they
were put under surveillance, followed and questioned. Additionally, after years
of delays, immigration authorities took up their asylum cases again. "It
was clear that they were preparing to detain them and deport them," said
Tibbo. The lawyer also felt pressured by Hong Kong authorities himself, and
eventually fled the city in November 2017 with the help of the Canadian
Consulate and the non-profit organization Lawyers without Borders. But for the
refugees stuck in Hong Kong, leaving was not an option. "We were
scared," Kellapatha said. "We kept moving and slept in different
hotels from week to week." "Someone was calling from a private number
asking where my daughter went to school. So I kept my daughter at home,"
Kellapatha said. Sethumdi would end up missing more than a year of school. In
the spring of 2017, their fears mounted after they heard that officers from Sri
Lanka's Criminal Investigation Department (CID) had visited Hong Kong looking
for them. "We know they were targeting and hunting my clients," Tibbo
said. Sri Lankan and Hong Kong authorities deny the allegations.
Escape to Canada
Kellapatha and his family were
joined by Filipino refugee Vanessa Rodel in sheltering Snowden in Hong Kong.
Rodel and Kellapatha have a daughter, Keana, from an earlier relationship Another
Sri Lankan refugee, Ajith Puspa, said he served as Snowden's bodyguard. In
2016, as the threat of deportation loomed over all of them, Tibbo turned to a
group of Canadian lawyers for help. They set up an organization called
"For the Refugees" and filed asylum applications in Canada. Rodel and
daughter Keana arrived in Montreal, Canada in March 2019 For Rodel and her daughter Keana, the effort
worked. After their claims were accepted by Canada, they arrived at Montreal
airport in March 2019. But the fate of the Sri Lankans in Hong Kong remains
unclear. For Ajith, delays to his case by Hong Kong's Torture Claim Appeal
Board offer "some sort of protection," Tibbo said, while admitting
that chances are low that the claim will be accepted. The situation is more
urgent for Kellapatha's family, whose asylum claims in Hong Kong have already
been rejected. They could be deported to Sri Lanka at any time, and the parents
are terrified that they might be separated from their young children. They
still feel unsafe in Hong Kong. "Every time we go outside, we need to go
as a family. I'm very scared about them going alone," Kellapatha said. "Sometimes
we sense people following us or looking at us, but we can't go to the police
about this. We don't trust Hong Kong police." Hong Kong is not a signatory
to the UN refugee convention, and very few asylum seekers are accepted to
settle there. By comparison, Germany
offered some level of protection to 37.3% of asylum seekers in 2019. Tibbo said
he believes Canada has come under pressure from the US and other governments in
the "Five Eyes" intelligence alliance over the cases. "I see no
reason why Canada would have proceeded with Vanessa's case and left the other
two cases hanging," Tibbo said. A spokesperson for Canada's immigration
department told DW in an email that applications are processed on a
"first-in, first-out basis." However, the lawyers said that the
refugees' applications in Canada were filed at the same time. "Canada's
refugee and asylum system is an objective process in which decisions are taken
about the standards refugees meet," the immigration spokesperson wrote.
A painful separation
As Keana's father, Kellapatha
feels the two families have been torn apart. They were always close, and the
children spent a lot of time together. "One of my kids has a free life, so
if I think about her, I'm happy. But on the other hand, I'm upset, nervous and
sad, because I miss her a lot." For his other daughter, Sethumdi, the
separation from Keana has been especially difficult. "Sethumdi always
talks about her sister," said mother Nadeeka Nonis, who considers Keana to
be a family member. "After they talk on the phone, Sethumdi always asks
why we cannot go, but I don't have an answer. It's very difficult because I
don't know what to tell her." Tibbo and the lawyers from For the Refugees
are calling on Canada to reunite the families, citing UN guidelines which
direct against family separations.
No regrets for helping Snowden
After two pro-democracy activists
from Hong Kong were granted asylum in Germany in May 2019, Tibbo said there is
now a legal precedent of political persecution, which could
"significantly" strengthen the refugees' claims as it "puts
Canada on notice" that Hong Kong is unsafe. When Edward Snowden left the
family's home in 2013, he was wearing Kellapatha's shirt and baseball cap as a
disguise. "He asked me, 'can I borrow it?' I told him he could borrow it
forever," Kellapatha said as he smiled. Although the family is in a
precarious situation, they have no regrets over what they did. "Because we
helped him, we have some threats to our life and there is danger," Nonis
said. "But despite that, I don't regret it." "When we see what
Snowden did, it gives us some strength," said Kellapatha. Tibbo continues
to represent Snowden, and the family in Hong Kong. He said he does not regret
asking the refugees for help, and said the decision was made in an
"extremely difficult situation," with Snowden at risk of abduction or
assassination. "In terms of the problems they [the refugees] have today,
this is not something I've done. This is not something they've done. This is
something that the Hong Kong authorities have done," Tibbo said.
^ This article is extremely biased
in his covering of this story. The writer clearly believes these people are
heroes and not people who aided a criminal and a traitor as they really are. I
hope they do get deported from Hong Kong and that they are brought to justice
for helping Snowdon. What thing I also like hearing is that Snowdon clearly
wants out of Russia (he probably gave them all the information he had and is no
longer treated like a king by them) and is trying to go to Germany, France and
any other place. He should be a real man and come back to the US and face the
consequences of his actions. If he doesn’t believe he is a criminal then he
shouldn’t have fled the country. He should have stayed in the US and told his
reasons for doing what he did. He is a criminal because he not only stole government
information, but he released them and then fled – which proves he isn’t a whistleblower
but a traitor. I know his direct deeds have led to an untold number of people
around the world being in grave danger if not imprisoned or even killed and
what is this “hero” doing? Publishing a book about his crimes. ^
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