After 13 years in Hong Kong as a refugee, John received plane tickets that would grant his family new lives in the US — only for them to be snatched away with a stroke of the pen by US President Donald Trump.
Trump’s executive order to suspend all refugee admissions and halt the US asylum program, signed hours after taking office, has left adrift dozens in the territory approved for US resettlement.
John’s scheduled flight to Los Angeles barely missed today’s deadline — had he been allowed to board, the executive order would have taken effect while he was in the air.
Photo: AFP
“It was devastating news for the whole family,” said the 37-year-old, who fled persecution in an East African country and spoke using a pseudonym.
“[We had] just a few days remaining,” he said.
The order — despite being up for review in 90 days — has already caused “pain” and a “huge ripple effect” as asylum seekers in Hong Kong now fear being sent back to square one, advocates for refugee rights said.
John said he had completed years of stringent US vetting, including security and medical checks.
The UN International Organization for Migration (IOM) had “prepared everything” to resettle him, his wife and their children.
“We actually asked [the IOM], ‘Is there any way we can buy the ticket for our own and just travel maybe on Sunday?’ They say, ‘No way possible.’”
Trump’s order temporarily cuts off a legal migration pathway for the estimated 37.9 million refugees fleeing wars, persecution or disasters around the world.
In his order, Trump said the US had been “inundated” and could not absorb migrants in a way that protects Americans’ safety and security. In last year’s fiscal year, more than 100,000 refugees resettled in the US, the most in three decades.
James, who was cleared for US resettlement this month after waiting 14 years in Hong Kong, said it was “not fair” to halt all arrivals.
“[The] first time we heard the news, I wasn’t able to sleep… until now it’s still difficult,” said James, 31, who fled an East African nation and asked to use a pseudonym for safety.
“How many millions of people doesn’t sleep... because of what [Trump] signed?” he said.
John and James belong to the tiny fraction of the 15,800 asylum seekers living in Hong Kong who successfully jumped through all the hoops for resettlement, typically in the US or Canada.
Both men said they were given short notice, forcing them to quit their jobs, end home leases and bid farewell to friends.
Social worker Jeffrey Andrews at the Christian Action Centre for Refugees estimates there were up to 50 people similarly “on the way out.”
Typically up to 70 refugees would leave for the US every year, he said.
“I thought this is the year we’re going to say goodbye to more people,” Andrews said, citing an upward trend last year, “but now it’s turned upside down.”
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