Amid the surging fifth wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in Hong Kong, refugees and asylum seekers are petitioning the government through Social Welfare Department (SWD) to provide cash relief to enable them to purchase food items and other necessities of life.

The citywide, panic buying has cleared off food items from the only shopping stores that refugees and asylum seekers can use their food card to buy food items from, ParknShop, it’s almost emptied every day, all valuable food items cannot be found there. With no access to cash to buy food, we are stranded now. We do not have any option to shop anywhere because our “food card” is limited only to shopping for food items at ParknShop, we have nowhere to find enough food for our families. We need your help; we need cash relief support.

Individually, we have tried to reach out to our respective ISS case officers to raise our complaint and request more support, but no positive response is taken. ISS case officers ignore responding to many of our calls. Few case officers who did answer informed us that they will raise the issue to their top management, but weeks have gone by, no feedback, many of the case officers simply told us that they (ISS) cannot provide additional support to us, they are telling us to go the NGOs. Why? Is it not ISS who sign a contract with the government to help us? was it these small NGOs mandated by the government to cater for our basic needs? Why is ISS neglecting to respond to our needs for help at this dire moment?

Worse yet, instead of finding ways to support us more during this pandemic, ISS cuts off the small transport allowance for the month of February, telling us that due to Covid19, they cannot see us in their office so no transportation money will be given until next month. Why can’t they transfer/top up the money to our octopus’ cards? Now we are struggling with no means to even go to the hospital in case of sickness, or report to the immigration office for our monthly signing. Also, searching for ParknShop with items we need requires taking transport and going to another part of the city that may have some food items in their ParknShop. We are really suffering.

Despite the effort from the NGOs, trying to provide some food items to us, these are not enough to meet our needs. 

• First, they are not distributing it to all our community members equally, some may get, some may not, some may get more some less and some may get items they cannot even eat or like to eat.
• Secondly, most of these donated food items always have noticeably short expiry dates, sometimes within few days. Besides, the majority of the refugee community comes from diverse backgrounds and cultures, many of us prefer halal food instead of canned foods. Some of us are starving now because we cannot eat the canned pork, noodles and pasta and candies from the NGOs. Though they are trying their best, it’s not changing the situation of many of us, especially in this tough time, we need your help.

Our emergency needs and demands in this dire situation is:

• We need emergency cash relief to help us buy food items and other nonfood necessities like disinfectants for our homes

Additionally, we need a change in the existing support being administered by International Social Service. (ISS) to refugee & asylum seekers.

For years we have been subjected to a fixed amount of support from ISS. This is very unfair and inhumane treatment from an organisation that signed a contract to support us to live with dignity in this city. Over the years, there have been drastic changes in economic condition due to covid19, prices of goods and services have increased drastically, making access to basic needs a daily struggle for everyone. For this very reason, the Hong Kong government has been giving relief support to its citizen since the pandemic started. but none of these relief supports is extended to us. Given all these pandemic conditions and economic difficulties, ISS never increased any amount of their support package to us, with exception of a few masks and hand sanitisers, -nothing has been provided to alleviate our struggle throughout this covid19 pandemic until now. Not even the NGOs provided any cash relief support to ease our struggle. We are not superhuman, but the most vulnerable of society. 

We are kindly requesting a change in the following support packages that the government is providing through ISS, these are.

1. Food Card – The 1200HKD value inside the food card is not enough. This has been in place for more than 8 years now the prices of food items The amount inside the food card is not enough to sustain us for a month. We can only shop 2 or 3 times and the card balance is zero, for the rest of the weeks leading to the end of the month, we must struggle to find food and other necessities like toiletries and sanitary items. 

Our needs & demands

• We need the government to change from giving us food cards to giving us cash or octopus cards instead. This will allow us to buy the right kind of food that we need and in a situation of emergency, we will not be limited to only one shopping store.
• Secondly, we cannot live on 40HKD a day, the 1200HKD food card value is not enough to feed individuals for the whole month, we need ISS to increase the amount to at least 2500 or above.

2. Transportation – The 200HKD transport allowance is not enough. The transport allowance of 200HKD is not enough to help us for the whole month. With the increase in transport fare, it gets finished before the mid of the month. 

Our needs & demands

• We need an increase of 50% in the transportation allowance to the current 200HKD which is not enough.

3. Nonfood items – All the nonfood food items are given, which are not what we want. The non-food items being given is not helpful especially during this pandemic. We are being told to disinfect our homes, but ISS never gives us any home disinfectants for our home.

The food card we have, cannot buy any other household items that are much needed for a household and especially for families.

Our needs & demands

• We need a utility for home disinfectant
• If this cannot be provided, we should be given cash support to help us buy disinfectants and other nonfood items for the household.

4. Rental Support– The 1500HKD rental support & 300HKD for utility is not enough.

• Firstly, costs of house rent in Hong Kong are very high, the amount being given cannot rent any room anywhere in Hong Kong.
• Secondly, for years, we are told to go beg the NGOs or churches to top up our rental costs. The fact is, these NGOs and churches are not supporting the majority of us, especially if one is not on their list of clients for such support, then there is no way out to get any rental top-up from them. 
• Thirdly, the rental top-up (for those who manage to get it) from the NGOs or churches, is not given on a regular/monthly basis. most of the time, it’s just one-off or for a few months only and no more. Only a very small number of refugees & asylum seekers are getting some rental top-up from these NGOs or churches, many of us do not get any support for our house rent. 
• Fourthly, ISS rental support to children below 18 is not given in full, they only pay half of the amount. How can this be, a child (especially a teenager) is a whole human being, needs a place to live and sleep, how can ISS justify paying half the rental amount for older children ages 12 to 17 years old?

  Our needs & demands

• We need full rental and utility cost support from ISS.
• If not, we need an increase in the current rental support because of inflation, livelihood is getting more expensive. we do not have any means to top up our rents, every month we are struggling, we need at least a raise to 3000HKD per individual.
• If this cannot be done, we need a clear direction and a list of organisations or welfare departments where we can go to get rental top-ups.
• We need full rental fees for our children (especially teenage children) to be paid in full, not half the cost of adults as it has been for decades.

5. Services & Support for the Bereaved– We normally don’t see ISS support in a situation where we lost one of our community members in the past, we have not been seeing any active support from ISS to guide the bereaved family with the process of burial or cremation. This is the time when the bereaved family may need all the support they can get to cope with the pain during this challenging time, ranging from death registration, burial arrangement to financial assistance. However, we do not see ISS actively providing these services.

 Our needs & demands

• We need the full support of ISS to the bereaved family coping with the pain in a situation.
• If ISS is not supporting in this area, we need to know which department is assigned to provide these services; death registration, burial arrangement, crematoria booking, and financial assistance to cover the costs.