Murder witness fails in bid to appeal asylum rejection

 

The High Court upheld the Board's decision denying the Filipina's claim

A Filipina who claimed to have fled to Hong Kong because she was being hunted by a man she witnessed killing his wife, has failed to convince the High Court to review her application for asylum which had been rejected by the Immigration Department and then the Torture Claims Appeal Board.

Merriam Cantores, 51 years old, “has raised no valid reason to challenge the Board’s Decision,” according to a decision issued by the Court of First Instance last June 24 on order by Deputy High Court Judge K.W. Lung.

As a result, “the Court will not usurp the fact-finding power vested in the Director (of Immigration) and the Board,” it asserted.

TAWAG NA!

Cantores first arrived in Hong Kong as a visitor on Nov. 29, 2011, and travelled frequently to China to be able to extend her visa until May 2013. After her last arrival on May 16, 2013, she overstayed when her visa expired on May 31, 2013.

She was arrested by police on July 10, 2013.

On March 3, 2014, she applied for non-refoulement, claiming that if she is returned to the Philippines, she would be harmed or killed by a man called Joseph, who was connected to the New People’s Army, because she witnessed him murdering his wife in August 2011.

The Immigration director dismissed her claim, citing a small future risk of harm upon her return to the Philippines, that state protection would be available to her, that she can relocated to another part of the country and that her case failed to meet any of the requirements for asylum seekers such as risk to life, risk of persecution or risk of torture.

Cantores appealed to the Board, but she failed to attend its two hearings, so her appeal was determined in her absence. The Board subsequently upheld the earlier decision.

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