Knocking on doors
Neighbours – of the good or the bad, of the big or the small ones.
倘若世界真如我們所說是一條地球村，那麼毗近的國家便是我們的鄰居。自幼我們便教導對待鄰里應該守互相助，何解我從現狀看來，更多的是視若無睹？香港從不匱乏資源，對於來敲門想移民進來的人，也沒有要築高牆拒諸門外，然而偏偏對於東南亞甚至其餘世界各地的難民，則總有諸多不接的理由。在每日容許一百五十名內地來港團聚的名額下，莫非我們真的分不出一點資源給在人道上有需要的人？拒伸援手是真的愛莫能助，還是心有間隙；是不能，還是不為？
Leung runs THE house in the neighbourhood.
Three people came knocking on his door asking for the same thing – Can I spend the night here?
Sanjay was the first one and he was told to wait outside for further instructions. He came from a street across and half of his home was just burnt down due to someone else’s cigarettes. He was in need of a place to stay, and he knew Leung could of accommodate. He waited patiently as the second person approached.
Maria knocked on the door. Someone opened it from the inside and asked her a series of questions, “How old are you?” “Do you have kids?” She answered the questions as routinely as the one who asked, like she had been trained. She’s also told to wait but soon was led in to the house.
Zhao arrived when Sanjay was almost falling asleep on the doorstep. They exchanged a look and Zhao went straight to knock on the door. This time the door simply opened. He was greeted by people and invited to come on in for tea.
Sanjay has never felt so wide-awake before. He turned his head around and looked behind the gorgeous garden. Right by the fence there are a lot more people who are just like him. He went up and joined them, learning that they have all been waiting here – Abdullah, Nguyen, Amir, Shamim… They all have legitimate reasons to want to stay for the night but are never allowed to.
If you are still reading the story, you might find it random, nonsensical and farfetched from real world. Truth is, it’s not. It’s a real situation in Hong Kong as how we are treating our neighbours. The more I read into the facts, the more inequality and injustice I found lie under the current situation. Sanjay is no just a random name, in the story, he represents all the people on the go that are denied accessed to a home.
Located almost at the centre of East Asia, the small-scale city Hong Kong ranked 12th on the Human Development Index from United Nations (2015) and 30th on the Average Monthly Earnings (PPP) from International Labour Organisation. It has been a hot spot for investments and immigrations. According to surveys conducted by the Hong Kong government, almost 10% of the current seven millions population are immigrants. Minus those from across continents, immigrants from Asia still comprise 9% of the permanent residents. Everyday the government is allowing 150 Chinese citizens per day to immigrate to Hong Kong on purpose of “family reunion”. However, as of September 2017, there are 14,000 refugees and asylum seekers are shut out of the door. Base on the number on its own, it’s not like we don’t have the ability and capability to accommodate people – so why do we have people like Sanjay that are out casted from the community?
Hong Kong and Its Neighbours – who knocks and who enters?
Despite Asia has its rapid growth in economic, the wealth gap is still significantly large in comparison to Europe and Northern America. The political atmosphere here is also far less democratic and open than other continents. Being one of the few fairly democratised political systems, the geography of Hong Kong is much more desirable compare to Japan and Korea, the more developed ones. Being one of the most economically advanced places in Asia, the location of Hong Kong and its comparatively democratised political system have made Hong Kong a popular city to visit, travel, invest and live in. We do welcome everyone; at least it’s what to be told to the world. But hey, to rephrase George Orwell, some one is more everyone than others.
Put travelling aside, one would think the most common reason for people to knock on Hong Kong’s door would be for employment – it surprisingly only comprises a small portion of the foreign population in Hong Kong. Most Filipinos and Indonesians come to Hong Kong in hope of looking for a job to support their families back home. The door is most knocked by Mainland Chinese – not for employment either, but family reunion. By regulation, Hong Kong ought to grant 150 Chinese citizens per day their rights to reside in Hong Kong so as to reunite with their families (mostly married couples, which leads to significant amount of fake marriage cases). This represents the largest portion of foreign population in Hong Kong.
And then we have Sanjay from the story. Essentially, Sanjay represents the refugees in Hong Kong – more precisely, they are pending refugees. They won’t be granted the status of refugees unless they passed the Torture Claimant, which is reviewed and approved by the Hong Kong Immigration Department. Till September last year, 30 thousands cases have been filed, only half of them are reviewed in the spanning of 12 years. Amongst those cases, 110 of them are granted their status of refugees. But that doesn’t mean they are allowed to stay and work in Hong Kong. It merely means they won’t be deported and their cases would be transfer to the UN High Commissioner of Refugee. The Immigration Department also claimes that they can only process about 2 thousands cases per year, which means the average pending time could be 7 years.
Pakistanis, Sri Lankans, Burmese, Vietnamese, Indians… These are the people in need. And we are shutting them out of the door.
The Locked Door
The number is scarce. What’s even worse for the refugees was that they are not allowed to work while they wait for the Torture Claimant review since 2013. The reason for that, to put in a nutshell, was to prevent people from the neighbouring countries from abusing the system.
It is almost utterly unbelievable that while we have all the resources for letting people in, we are shutting out those who are in most humanitarian need. The government did not give any plausible explanation as to why we have not taken up our fair share of responsibility in contributing to basic human decency, either. In 2016, the Security Bureau stated that the Convention Relating to Status of Refugees was never applicable to Hong Kong as Hong Kong is not a sovereign state and does not share membership status in the United Nations. Therefore, the pending refugees are now referred to as illegal immigrants.
Since they are not eligible to work, their only livelihood depends on the slender stipend offered by some non-governmental organisations. They wanders publicly for having nothing possibly to do, which might leads them facing the charges of loitering. Some illegal immigrants have no choice but to work illegally, hence they become illegal workers once get caught and under arrested.
The media outlets have also fueled the xenophobic emotions spreading among public. For each criminal case involved ethnic minority in Hong Kong, it is put on the headlines with title in bold: SOUTHERN ASIAN HARM two pedestrians at midnight or “the victim lives next to a SOUTHERN ASIAN who might have committed the arson…”
It is difficult for people not to circulate the implications of it further down the road. Currently there are 25 UN agencies working together in China. However, only one of them is put in Hong Kong, the UNHCR. In an outburst of global humanitarian crisis, China has stated its standpoint to not open its border to war victims and refugees. It is saddening that, as a country in a powerful position to change is reluctant to take on the responsibility. It is also upsetting that, as a city taking pride of its international and multi-cultural features is closing its door to those most in need.
Sanjay
So what happens to Sanjay and the rest of his fellas in the story? Sanjay hesitated if he should still wait after all the stories that he heard from the others. He thought of how he used up almost all of his money to get the house and how difficult it was to cross all the borders – leaving didn’t seem like an option. He walked up the doorstep again to knock on the door. And this time even louder and more vigorously. Security came out and stopped him from “making turbulences to the peace of the house”. A second later, the security is gone. A huge wave of unjust and unfair flooded to his chest, he felt his face turn red and that he couldn’t calm. He picked up a piece of rock and attempted to throw it towards the glass window – someone stopped him.
“What are you doing? Don’t sabotage our chance to get in, they have been doing that for us already.”
As Sanjay unwillingly put down the small rock, Zhao, who entered the house just a moment ago, came back out and led more of his people in.
It may not be entirely fair to compare the international realm as neighbours. But in a world where we praise for the idea of global village and international community, it is worthwhile for us to see it from another perspective. If you own a house and your neighbours are in need of something – would you help them based on the level of emergency or anything other than basic human decency? Surely the big and rich neighbours can bring us prosperity, but shouldn’t we take care of the small neighbours as well for a better and more peaceful world that we long for?
