A number of Filipinos are reportedly seeking asylum in Hong Kong, using the extrajudicial killings in the Philippines amid the government’s anti-drugs campaign as an excuse.
According to a source who contacted The SUN, a number of recently-arrived Filipinos are citing Duterte’s bloody anti-drugs campaign as reason for their application for asylum.
“Some people have found a new reason to justify their bid for asylum, and the anti-drugs campaign is quite a convenient and credible excuse,” the source said.
Previously, asylum-seekers cited a number of reasons, from receiving death threats from cuckolded husbands, irate debtors and parties in property disputes, to fear of retribution from political rivals or government agents.
“The new Filipino asylum-seekers are invoking Article 2 of the Hong Kong Bill of Rights, which guarantees the right to life,” said the source, who added that the bloodletting at home could set off a wave of refugees.
The anti-drugs war was part of Duterte’s platform when he ran for the presidency in the Philippines’ national elections in May this year, which he resoundingly won.
His victory was immediately followed by a daily spate of summary killings of known and suspected drug suppliers, pushers and addicts, even before he assumed office on July 1.
Statistics from July 1 cited by the Philippine National Police in a Senate probe into the killings was 3,441 dead: 1,375 in legitimate police operations and 2,066 “deaths under investigation”, a euphemism for summary executions attributed to vigilantes.
Some of those spooked by the campaign have reportedly left the country to take up residency in another country or seek a safe haven, as did these asylum or torture claimants in Hong Kong.
The SUN sent an inquiry to the Hong Kong Immigration Department to verify the reports, but failed to get a direct reply. A spokesperson for the Department merely directed this writer to a site which showed that as of June this year, there were a total of 461 Filipinos out of 11,169 torture claimants in Hong Kong.
There are no statistics yet for the relevant period of July to September, when the Duterte administration has been in power.
Long before Duterte’s ascent to power, hundreds of Filipinos who had come to Hong Kong as tourists or domestic helpers would overstay their visas and apply for non-refoulement to stop their deportation, citing threats to their lives back home.
