{"id":6199,"date":"2014-02-27T23:32:52","date_gmt":"2014-02-27T15:32:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chinaworker.info\/?p=6199"},"modified":"2014-02-27T23:39:53","modified_gmt":"2014-02-27T15:39:53","slug":"hong-kong-refugees-start-new-occupation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/en\/2014\/02\/27\/6199\/","title":{"rendered":"Hong Kong refugees start new occupation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2018Occupy SWD\u2019 accuses government of covering up abuses by its private refugee welfare contractor ISS-HK<\/strong><\/p>\n

Around 50 refugees with their families set up a protest camp outside the offices of the Social Welfare Department (SWD) in Hong Kong\u2019s Wan Chai district on February 27. They are demanding the department stop defending rogue contractor ISS-HK. This latest escalation of the refugees\u2019 struggle \u2013 organised through the newly formed Refugee Union (RU) \u2013 follows a peaceful and disciplined one-week occupation of three ISS offices in mid-February. At the time of that occupation the union also filed a complaint with anti-graft body ICAC to investigate ISS-HK for corruption.<\/p>\n

\"Refugee<\/a>
Refugee protest camp in Wan Chai kicks off on Thursday 27 February<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe will stay here as long as it takes,\u201d one of the refugee mothers involved in the occupation told the website of campaign group Vision First. \u201cEveryday more people will come and support us and soon all Hong Kong will know that ISS are criminals and SWD are unwilling to terminate their contract. We will never give up this fight for our rights!\u201d<\/p>\n

The launch of the protest camp \u2013 called \u2018Occupy SWD\u2019 \u2013 follows unsuccessful negotiations between the union and the Social Welfare Department on February 26. A statement from the union said the department \u201cis either in denial, or more likely hiding secrets from the general public.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fake NGO, fat budget<\/strong><\/p>\n

Refugees in Hong Kong are treated abysmally. Banned from working by harsh government rules, they are forced to survive on handouts from charitable organisations and the very low welfare disbursements from ISS-HK. This \u2018NGO\u2019 is in fact a limited company under contract to the Hong Kong government with a fat HK$280 million annual budget to run welfare services for 5,600 refugees.<\/p>\n

Refugees complain that food packages, supposedly worth HK$1,200 per month are routinely \u2018downsized\u2019 to contain less than this amount. The South China Morning Post recently conducted its own survey and found the goods in a monthly ISS food bundle to be worth between 13-30 percent less than the legal guidelines. This means ISS is short-changing refugees by HK$300-HK$400 worth of food per person per month. The Refugee Union suspects collusion between ISS and the food suppliers to charge inflated prices and supply inferior and even expired food.<\/p>\n

Despite repeated requests the SWD has refused to publish its contract with ISS-HK. This is one of the key demands of the refugee protest.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe corruption doesn\u2019t come from ISS-HK. It comes from the Hong Kong government,\u201d said Mohammadi Rahman Raymond of the Refugee Union. \u201cThe government doesn\u2019t want refugees to be comfortable as they wrongly claim that will attract more asylum seekers. So ISS-HK is like a henchman only following his boss\u2019s orders. The SWD-ISS contract is kept secret because it contains instructions that would bring shame to the government.\u201d<\/p>\n

The government wants to portray refugees as a \u2018burden\u2019 on Hong Kong\u2019s welfare, while at the same time cruelly banning refugees from getting jobs to contribute to the local economy. But the current model of outsourcing welfare services to rogue companies like ISS-HK cheats both refugees and the people of Hong Kong.<\/p>\n

Attacks on the poor<\/strong><\/p>\n

Socialist Action (CWI) is active in support of the refugees\u2019 struggle and calls on all workers and youth to show their support for the ongoing occupation. The protest camp in Wan Chai was set up one day after finance minister John Tsang Chun-wah unveiled his stingiest budget to date. While he plans to dole out a record HK$78 billion in the form of new infrastructure projects to fill the bank accounts of Hong Kong\u2019s property tycoons, economic support measures for the poor (such as electricity subsidies and 2-month housing rent waiver) are to be slashed by 40 percent compared to last year. This shows that the refugees\u2019 struggle for stronger welfare protection and democratic accountability is part of a wider struggle against an unjust and undemocratic government, whose policies are designed to make the super-rich even richer at the expense of the majority.<\/p>\n

Show your support for the Refugee Union and \u2018Occupy SWD\u2019 \u2013 more information on the union\u2019s facebook page<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Negotiations<\/a>
Negotiations with Social Welfare Dept led nowhere (February 26)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018Occupy SWD\u2019 accuses government of covering up abuses by its private refugee welfare contractor ISS-HK Around 50 refugees with their families set up a protest camp outside the offices of the Social Welfare Department (SWD) in Hong Kong\u2019s Wan Chai district on February 27. They are demanding the department stop defending rogue contractor ISS-HK. This […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":6200,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[133,124],"tags":[239,11,1612,1613],"class_list":{"0":"post-6199","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hong-kong","8":"category-news","9":"tag-asylum","10":"tag-hong-kong","11":"tag-refugee-union","12":"tag-welfare"},"yoast_head":"\nHong Kong refugees start new occupation - China Worker<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/en\/2014\/02\/27\/6199\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hong Kong refugees start new occupation - China Worker\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u2018Occupy SWD\u2019 accuses government of covering up abuses by its private refugee welfare contractor ISS-HK Around 50 refugees with their families set up a protest camp outside the offices of the Social Welfare Department (SWD) in Hong Kong\u2019s Wan Chai district on February 27. 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