David Lai

Opinion | Hong Kong should empower its young refugees with better education and support

Often poor, socially excluded and lacking in educational opportunities, young refugees are still waiting for the city to wake up to its duty of care

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Inderjeet Singh (left) and Sahal Zaman in a still from The Sunny Side of the Street, a film about a Hong Kong taxi driver and a young refugee boy he meets. Image: Petra Films

David Lai

Published: 8:15am, 6 Jun 2023

Eleven-year-old Pakistani actor Sahal Zaman recently won best new performer at the 41st Hong Kong Film Awards for The Sunny Side of the Street. His role as a young refugee brought to life the hardships of refugee life in Hong Kong.

Many young refugees in Hong Kong, whether having fled here with their parents or born here to a refugee family, grow up in a very tough environment and face many limitations to their personal and career development.

According to Immigration Department data, as at February 28, there were 1,437 non-refoulement claimants aged 24 or younger, who have made claims for protection against expulsion, return or surrender from Hong Kong to another country. They have no right of abode in Hong Kong and do not want to be repatriated to their country of origin. In some cases, refugees have to wait more than 20 years before resettlement.

Our research report “A Study of Refugee Youth in Hong Kong: Education Empowerment Programme”, released last month, includes in-depth interviews with three professionals and six young refugees. It explores the learning and living problems faced by refugee youth, their growth and development in Hong Kong and the adequacy of the support they receive.

It revealed that refugee youth not only go through the difficulties common to ethnic minority youth, such as social exclusion and self-identity problems, but also live within the constraints of their refugee status.

Refugee families find it hard to meet basic living expenses by solely relying on support from the government and NGOs. Refugee youth are deprived of the opportunity to participate in many extracurricular activities due to poverty and not being able to leave Hong Kong to take part in them due to travel restrictions. Talented refugee youth capable of further studies are held back by the lack of government subsidies for postsecondary education.