Nearly three-quarters of Hong Kong’s refugees are struggling to put food on the table, a survey released yesterday showed, as fears over the territory’s plans to control its worst-ever COVID-19 outbreak spark bouts of panic-buying.
Mixed messages from authorities about a planned lockdown and mass testing of all 7.4 million residents have led to a frenzied stripping of supermarket shelves, sending food prices soaring.
In a survey released by the Refugee Concern Network (RCN), 73 percent of asylum seekers — legally forbidden from working in Hong Kong — were unable to buy food between late last month and early this month, while nearly 70 percent lack supplies for meals this week.
DIRE STRAITS
“These findings ... suggest that Hong Kong’s community of over 14,000 refugees and asylum seekers is now facing dire humanitarian situations as the fifth wave peaks in the city,” RCN said in a statement, citing the survey’s sample size of about 120 refugees.
The small, but vulnerable community relies on a monthly food allowance of HK$1,200 (US$153) in the form of e-tokens, which can only be spent in supermarkets, where the prices are higher than local wet markets.
With local law barring refugees from employment while waiting for asylum applications to be approved, they mostly live in cramped spaces, with three or four sharing a room for years.
Limited cash flow also means they struggle to get household necessities such as toilet paper, menstrual pads and diapers, with 55 percent saying they do not have enough of these items at home.
“Without the right to work in Hong Kong, they are made dependent, by policy design, on meager subsidies from” the government, the statement said.
It called for authorities to arrange for “life-dependent subsidies” through the territory’s ubiquitous Octopus cards — used for public transportation and in stores — to address their most pressing needs.
The Hong Kong Branch of the International Social Service — a government-contracted organization that distributes aid to refugees — said there has not been a surge in requests from the community over food emergencies.
‘EFFECTIVE’
A spokesperson said that the e-token is “effective” and the International Social Service “does not consider it appropriate to modify the mode of delivery.”
However, Preston Cheung of Justice Center, a local non-profit that last week sounded the alarm on food scarcity, said the network had received up to 100 requests for help in recent weeks.
Harry, a refugee in his 20s from a country in the Middle East, said that visits to his local supermarket have been very frustrating, as the prices of canned goods and vegetables have jumped by 30 to 40 percent.
“Life is getting harder and harder every day,” said Harry, who requested a pseudonym for fear of repercussions. “It’s very stressful.”
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