The Sri Lankan asylum seekers who sheltered the American whistle-blower Edward Snowden in Hong Kong might be at risk of detention and deportation as their lawyer was not able to meet a final deadline imposed by the Immigration Department to file documents.

Robert Tibbo, a Canadian barrister who provided legal advice to Snowden when he was in the city in 2013, said 30 of his cases had been reactivated at the same time after at least two years of inactivity, leaving him unable to cope with the workload given his other work commitments.

“I understand I have been particularly targeted. They all know I have 30 cases that have been held in limbo and now this happens,” Tibbo said.

“To me this is a clear-cut strategy by the Hong Kong government to defeat my client cases by avoiding even looking at the merits of them. It is a grossly unfair procedure.”

This comes as a group of lawyers in Montreal is campaigning for the asylum seekers who helped Snowden in Hong Kong to be resettled in Canada. They housed the former US intelligence contractor for about two weeks back in 2013, shortly after he leaked classified documents that showed the extension of mass online surveillance by the American and other governments.

Tibbo was first asked on October 12 to file supplementary claim forms, in which additional grounds for claim could be stated for Supun Thilina Kellapatha and Nadeeka Dilrukshi Nonis, a couple from Sri Lanka. The final deadline was December 14.

The lawyer said he also missed the deadline for their two children. Papers filed by protection claimants usually include their personal history, the threats faced in their home countries and updates on their nations’ security situation.

Tibbo’s request to file all documents by the end of January was rejected by the Immigration Department.

An immigration officer said in a letter about Supun’s case that the duty’s lawyer schedule was “not a reasonable excuse for any further delay in the submission” of supplementary claim forms.

The officer continued: “We consider ample time and reasonable opportunities have been given to him [the claimant] to complete the supplementary claim forms and to seek advice from his legal representative.” Failing to do so, the officer noted, “his claim will be treated as withdrawn”.

Tibbo said that in such cases the government had the right to arrest and deport the claimant.

Vanessa Mae Rodel, a Filipino asylum seeker who has a four-year-old daughter, will soon be in a similar situation.

-scmp
-Agencies