HKRAC doesn’t have the balls to fight in the USM arena

Dear Vision First & HKRAC,


After reading the below, I was greatly pained and still feel my Heart bleeding as a person who was once a Refugee and a client to both organizations. It's so unfortunate to see you two powerfull institutions changing the frontline yet the desperate asylum seekers and refugees in Hong Kong hopes are in your hands. If you both have the interests of this poor members of society, then you must fight the same battle NOT turning the guns on yourselves. I hope your clients themselves will be able to judge your actions.



Yours concerned,

Wilson Lakony. HKRAC doesn’t have the balls to fight in the USM arena


Dear Aleta –
In reply to your below email requesting use of our notice board, we are not posting your flyer, and here are my thoughts why.
First, there is little you can teach about USM that is not in the public arena already and hasn’t been torn apart by the Hong Kong Bar Association 14 February 2014 submission.

Second, we appreciate that HKRAC’s days as the UNHCR golden boy are over. We blogged in “Winners and Losers” that HKRAC is about to experience a culture shock entering shark-infested USM waters. To achieve results in this arena more than cocktail parties are necessary as the opponent of refugees is fierce and powerful.
Most lawyers in the “Big City” law firms that support HKRAC are clueless about the cruel oppression refugees suffer. It is of concern that they are mostly unqualified to represent protection claimants at the Immigration Department, unable to face racist magistrates and unskilled for judicial reviews in the High Court. There is less than a dozen human rights lawyers in town and Duty Lawyer Service will not assign more cases to them.

If HKRAC cannot give legal advice or appoint pro bono lawyers, then it is reduced to a pathetic signboard pointing the way towards a process in which it has no say and no power.

Refugees desperately require either legal advice, which HKRAC cannot give, or fearless advocacy, which HKRAC cannot stomach!
Had you paid attention to OCCUPY ISS, you would know that Vision First is closed to support the Refugee Union’s historic occupation of a despotic contractor. Not only did I sleep in the streets for three days, ready for a police assault, but I haven’t been to the office since 10 February and won’t return until ISS falls.
On the frontline, the absence of HKRAC and other NGOs and churches serving refugees was regrettably noted. Instead of emailing about our notice board, you could have bolstered the protest line with your staff and flyers – that would have earned you great respect!
Similarly, instead of sitting at your desk, you could have inspected refugee ghettos and offered assistance to a thousand neglected refugees, who supposedly didn’t fit your lucrative business model before.

Let me vent some anger (which is well pondered over), by saying that it is apparent to us that HKRAC doesn’t have the balls to fight in the USM arena. There is tremendous brutality behind Immigration, Duty Lawyer Service, adjudicators and their hard-line trainers.

If you don’t know the enemy how can you enter the fight? We just hope HKRAC will become an asset in this fierce battle. But be aware that nothing you have learnt at UNHCR can prepare you for this dirty fight!

Cosmo
———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Aleta Miller <######@hkrac.org>

Date: Thu, Feb 13, 2014 at 9:54 PM

Subject: HKRAC USM info sessions

To: Danielle Stutterd

Dear Danielle,
I hope you are well. I’m attaching a flyer about new group information sessions on the USM which HKRAC are launching. Please find a flyer attached.

I’d be grateful if you could print the flyer and put it on the notice board in your center so that your clients can have access to the sessions. We can also drop some smaller leaflets to your centre if you would like to have them available to your clients.
I’m always happy to talk more about our services and answer any questions you may have, don’t hesitate to ask. Let me know if you’d like us to drop some flyers over.

Warm regards,

Aleta Miller
Executive Director
Hong Kong Refugee Advice Centre