Three families that sheltered US whistleblower Edward Snowden when he was hiding in Hong Kong in 2013 are facing possible detention and deportation from the city after their claims for asylum were officially rejected, their lawyer said Monday.
Four years ago, they took Snowden into their cramped Hong Kong apartments when he was trying to evade authorities after carrying out one of the biggest intelligence thefts in US history, releasing thousands of classified documents, including information on U. S. surveillance programs around the world.
“Me and my daughter will be separated, and I don’t know when we (will) see each other again, ” says Filipina Vanessa Rodel, a mother of a five-year-old girl. “It’s very hard for me. I am very worried.”
The Hong Kong government said in a statement to CNN that it believes that “there are no substantial grounds for believing that the claimants, if returned to their country of origin, will be subject to real and substantial risk of danger.”
It also denied that the government has singled the families out for expedited screening, saying the accusation is “unfounded.”
In an exclusive video message sent to CNN, Snowden made an appeal for people to help these families, who have also applied for asylum in Canada, by calling the Canadian Immigration Minister, the Canadian consulate in Hong Kong, or the Hong Kong government itself to petition on their behalf.
“They could be arrested any time, the children could be separated from their parents, ” Snowden said in the video. “And the families could be returned to the very places where they faced torture or worse.”
“This is about protecting peoples’ lives, ” Snowden added. “Don’t be afraid to call, because if we wait or we’re not sure, we’ll all wonder why we didn’t do more.”
The families have said they are too scared to return homes in the Philippines and Sri Lanka for fear of persecution.
