A FILIPINO family in Hong Kong were among the impoverished refugees who were asked to protect former US National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden who hid out in Hong Kong where he initiated one of the largest data leaks in US history, fuelling a firestorm over mass surveillance.
Vanessa Rodel said she has no regrets about taking Snowden in although she has been battling an international organization that was contracted by the Hong Kong government to take care of refugees.
Rodel, 46, says she hopes her case will lead to wider improvements for refugees in Hong Kong and dreams of a new home in Canada.
In the meantime, Vanessa says her four-year-old daughter Keana and elderly mother Rosalina will enjoy Christmas as best they can and decorated a tree at home. Keana says she is hoping for a toy pony.
“Next year my dream is to go to another country, for my safety, for my freedom,” says Rodel.
“I want to do good things for my daughter, and stand by myself.”
Rodel and other refugees initially had little idea of who Snowden was until their lawyer Robert Tibbo asked them to help protect Snowden.
“They just saw a man who was distressed and in need. They wanted to help,” he says.
Tibbo feels he owes them a “moral debt” and is determined to get them resettled abroad.
“But for these heroic families, I’m not sure Mr Snowden would have made it out,” says Tibbo.
The story of how impoverished refugees helped Snowden evade authorities in 2013 only emerged in September, propelling them into the media spotlight.
After leaving his initial hotel bolthole, Snowden went underground, fed and looked after by some of the city’s 11,000 marginalized refugees.
Snowden now lives in exile in Russia where he has sought asylum but the refugees remain in Hong Kong, desperately hoping for resettlement elsewhere.
Hong Kong is not a signatory to the UN’s refugee convention and does not grant asylum.
However, it is bound by the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (UNCAT) and considers claims for protection based on those grounds. It also considers claims based on risk of persecution.
Like Snowden’s hosts, many refugees spend years in limbo, hoping the government will support their claims.
After government screening, claimants found to be at risk of persecution are referred to UNHCR, which can try to resettle them to a safe third country.
But with fewer than one percent of cases successfully substantiated by Hong Kong authorities, most refugees live in fear of deportation.
