We would like to share the following article (authored by Te- Ping Chen), already dating from 18 February 2014, that has been published in the Online Newspaper ChinaRealtime: 


A refugee from Bangladesh stands at the doorstep to his room at a compound where asylum-seekers reside in the Ping Che area of Hong Kong.
Agence France-Presse/Getty Images


Hong Kong’s top court on Tuesday denied the city’s refugees—some of who live in slum-like conditions—the right to work, disappointing activists who say the decision is likely to force more refugees into deeper poverty.
The financial capital’s treatment of refugees has come under fierce criticism in recent years. Until a court ruling last year, Hong Kong refused to handle many asylum requests, effectively outsourcing them to the local office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, which helped refugees find homes elsewhere. The city doesn’t allow recognized refugees to permanently settle inside its borders, instead requiring them to seek homes overseas.That process of resettlement can take a decade or more, and in the meantime, many refugees and asylum-seekers live in squalid shacks dotting the city’s periphery. Hong Kong technically allows refugees to work, but they must first seek approval from the immigration department, which rarely grants it, lawyers say. If they work without permission, they risk jail time.
On Tuesday, Cosmo Beatson of refugee-advocacy group Vision First lambasted the court’s decision, calling it “massively disappointing.” Other developed nations, he notes, such as the U.S., grant refugees the right to work.“The right to work is a fundamental right,” he said. “The fact that we’ve had refugees who’ve been recognized 10 years ago and still can’t work is absolutely outrageous.”
Advocates say allowing refugees to work would have a limited impact on society, given that there are currently only around 100 recognized claimants in the city. In its ruling, Hong Kong’s court unanimously dismissed the appeal of four applicants identified in the judgment by their initials. The applicants hail from Burundi, Sri Lanka and Pakistan and all resided in Hong Kong for around a decade without the ability to work.
According to Daly & Associates, the law firm representing them, three of the four applicants are suffering from major depression or schizophrenia because of both the terrors they have suffered in the past and as a consequence of their uncertain status in Hong Kong. “This is not a case about ‘immigrants’ taking ‘our jobs,’” said the firm’s Mark Daly.  “It is a case about basic human dignity.”
Though three of the applicants can now work, Mr. Daly notes, they were given temporary permission, which expires this year, only after filing their latest appeal with the court.A spokesman for city’s security bureau, meanwhile, said that it welcomed the court’s judgment, adding that the government had “been acting and will continue to act in accordance with the law in a fair and reasonable manner.”
– Te-Ping Chen. Follow her on Twitter @tepingchen.