Hong Kong immigration authorities have offered reassurance and uncertainty in equal measure to two young Saudi asylum seekers stuck in the city, simultaneously approving the extension of their stay in the city while warning them that they could face prosecution as overstayers, their lawyer has said.
Michael Vidler — lawyer for the Saudi sisters Reem and Rawan, whose thwarted attempt to flee abuse at home has made global headlines — said in a statement today that officials had agreed to tolerate the sisters’ overstay of their visa until April 8.
“By the same letter however, the Director of Immigration now asserts that despite being tolerated, the sisters are liable to prosecution and removal as overstayers,” the statement adds.
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“We are urgently seeking clarification from Hong Kong immigration authorities and continue to press for an urgent determination of the sister’s visas to a 3rd country place of safety,” Vidler is quoted as saying in the statement.
The sisters arrived in Hong Kong in September after fleeing what they described as repression and repeated abuse at the hands of their family during a vacation to Sri Lanka. They had planned to merely transit through Hong Kong on their way to Australia, where they had secured visas, but were stopped at the airport here, first by airline staff acting on the request of Saudi consular officials, and subsequently by consular officials themselves.
The Saudi officials had the sisters’ onward flights and Australian visas canceled, and attempted to coerce them into returning to Saudi Arabia, temporarily confiscating their passports. Afraid to return to a country where they could face the death penalty for having renounced Islam, the sisters managed to get their passports back and decided to take their chances in Hong Kong.
Since then, with the assistance of a local rights group, the sisters have repeatedly changed locations within the city to avoid detection by Saudi officials, whom they say are trying to track them down.
The sisters’ passports were canceled shortly after their run-in with Saudi officials, raising fears they could be deported when their permission to stay in Hong Kong expired on Feb. 28. A request to extend their stay was acknowledged on the 28th, but not granted, leaving the sisters in legal limbo until the request was approved in the letter referred to in today’s statement.
The sisters are currently seeking asylum in an undisclosed third country.
In today’s statement, Reem and Rawan — who go by pseudonyms — said Saudi officials were looking for them, and highlighted the precariousness of their situation.
“They know we cannot leave because our passports were cancelled. Now we have learnt that although our presence in Hong Kong is tolerated, we face prosecution and removal by authorities here,” the pair was quoted as saying.
“We feel like fish trapped in a little oasis that is rapidly drying out. We are in constant fear of being found by the Saudi authorities and our family and forced to return to Saudi Arabia.”
Hong Kong Immigration Department officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Coconuts HK today.
