Stranded Saudi Arabian sisters could be deported from Hong Kong


Kyodo News
Posted at Mar 07 2019 10:25 PM
Two Saudi Arabian sisters who were stranded in Hong Kong after fleeing alleged repression at home have been allowed to stay until next month while waiting for third-country resettlement, a lawyer representing them said Thursday.
Michael Vidler said Hong Kong's immigration authorities have confirmed letting the sisters, who arrived from Sri Lanka last September, stay until April 8 but warned that they could face prosecution or be removed as overstayers afterwards.
"We are urgently seeking clarification from Hong Kong immigration authorities and continue to press for an urgent determination of the sister's visas to a third country place of safety," Vidler said in a statement posted on his law firm's social media account.
The women, aged 20 and 18 and using the aliases Reem and Rawan, said they have been hiding in Hong Kong since they arrived and feared being taken back home against their will.
"We are in Hong Kong because of the actions of the Saudi authorities at Hong Kong international airport in September. They know we are in Hong Kong and have been actively looking for us," the sisters were quoted as saying in the statement. "We feel like fish trapped in a little oasis that is rapidly drying out. We are in constant fear of being found by the Saudi authorities and our family and forced to return to Saudi Arabia."
They have been asking to be resettled to a third country, a "place of safety without being ever fearful that the Saudi authorities and our family will find us and abduct us."
Fed up with their abusive family, the sisters said they plotted the escape while they were on holiday with their family in Sri Lanka. They boarded a flight to Hong Kong, intending to catch a connecting flight to Melbourne, Australia, the same day.
But upon arrival in Hong Kong, they were intercepted in the transit area by airline staff and later by both the Saudi Arabian consul general and a vice consul, who they said tried to trick them to board a flight home.
They managed to elude them by entering into Hong Kong as visitors.
But they were told in November that their passports were invalidated and their stay in Hong Kong would expire by the end of last month.
Amnesty International has urged Hong Kong not to send the sisters back home, where they would "likely face criminal charges for leaving their homes without the permission of their male guardian under repressive male guardianship laws, for escaping the country and for renouncing Islam," it said in a statement.
In Saudi Arabia, apostasy is a serious crime that carries the death penalty. The two women also fear physical violence and retribution from male members of their family.
The Immigration Department declined to comment on individual cases, but said in general it is common practice for overstayers to be prosecuted or expelled after their periods of stay expire.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

PCG: China’s bullying in West Philippine Sea undermines international law --- Ghio Ong - The Philippine Star

MANILA, Philippines — Letting China sustain its aggression in the West Philippine Sea would make other countries doubt the strength of international law currently being asserted by the Philippines, Commodore Jay Tarriela of the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) said. “Allowing China to blatantly disregard the established rules-based order threatens the very foundation that we all depend on,” he wrote in a post on X last Tuesday. He added, “If we permit this, countries worldwide may forget why this order was created in the first place. Nations could begin to doubt the significance of adhering to international law if powerful bullies can easily violate it.” Tarriela also said defiance of other countries to a rules-based order would result in the prevalence of cruelty. He wrote, “This could lead us back to a time when might makes right, undermining the global structures that keep human greed, savagery and barbarism in check. Such a scenario would not only invite challenges from aggressive ...
Read more

China ships maintain presence in key West Philippine Sea areas --- Michael Punongbayan - The Philippine Star

STAR / Michael Varcas MANILA, Philippines — While Chinese vessels in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) have decreased in number, they have maintained a presence in three key land features where naval and coast guard ships have intensified operations in the past seven days, according to the Philippine Navy. Latest monitoring by the Philippine Navy showed armed ships of the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) maintaining a menacing presence around the grounded BRP Sierra Madre in Ayungin Shoal, Panatag Shoal and Escoda Shoal. According to the Philippine Navy, there are 17 Chinese military vessels and 28 China Coast Guard (CCG) boats spotted inside the country’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) between Sept. 23 and 30, or one vessel more than in the previous week Sept.17-23. Five of the warships were seen roaming around the vicinity of Escoda Shoal, along with 10 CCG vessels and 12 maritime militia vessels (MMVs). There are also two PLAN ships in Ayungin Shoal as well as 10 CCG boats and 12...
Read more

Social media seen as cause of rising intermarriages --- Helen Flores - The Philippine Star

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO) sees social media as the main reason for the rising number of Filipinos marrying or becoming partners of foreign nationals. In 2022, the CFO recorded 6,854 marriages or partnerships with foreign nationals, a 40.1 percent increase from the 4,891 “intermarriages” recorded in 2021. “First of all, what we see in the increase in the marriage rate of Filipinos or Filipinos with foreign partners is because of social media, (that) is number one; matchings; letters, introduction of their friends,” CFO chairperson Romulo Arugay said at the Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon public briefing yesterday. Arugay said the agency has been registering a high number of intermarriages since 2007, but the figures went down during the COVID-19 pandemic. From over 6,500 Filipinos who married foreign nationals, only 600 are men, he said. Most of them are married to Americans, Japanese, Germans, Canadians and Australians, Arugay said. Arugay warned Fi...
Read more