Alan’s Story

Alan, his wife, and their four children (7-19 years old), had to leave their home country in North Africa to escape persecution from community members of the majority religion there. The Hong Kong government recognized the imminent risk of persecution if they were to be returned to their country, and granted them non-refoulement protection - luckily forming part of the 1% success rate in Hong Kong.

Unfortunately, the “protection” only goes so far, and the family’s chance for resettlement was foreclosed when UNHCR decided against their application. This means they will have to live in Hong Kong for the rest of their lives without any proper status. Not treated as ‘residents’ and without HKID cards, the family will remain in limbo, never belonging anywhere. This has caused significant emotional distress to every member of the family, including the young children, who find themselves living perpetually as outcasts without residency status in this city. On top of the problems the family is already facing, Alan was recently tricked into an online scam that left him losing more thanHKD 200,000 - money that he had borrowed from a friend, and is now trying to repay over decades of his life.

HKDI has been assisting Alan and his family to apply for residency on a humanitarian basis. When the authorities decided that they will not consider granting residency to them, we helped the family to prepare a judicial review application to ask the courts to consider this catch-22 situation, and are helping the family to obtain representation for those proceedings. HKDI also assisted the family to discover the online scam, advised them to make a police report, and helped them to access medical care and social support for their children.

HKDI also provided counselling for Alan’s eldest daughter and is working with her school to provide an ADHD assessment.