People living in Yau Ma Tei subway claim their possessions were dumped, while government insists they had plenty time to clear items
JENNIFER NGOjennifer.ngo@scmp.com
PUBLISHED : Friday, 23 October, 2015, 12:09am
UPDATED : Friday, 23 October, 2015, 12:09am
Ng Wai-tung said the street sleepers at the subway in Ching Ping Street claimed police officers refused to let them collect their belongings before they were thrown away. Photo: Anthony Dickson
Street sleepers whose possessions were thrown away as trash in an early-morning raid by government officials are to take legal action after filing a complaint with the Legislative Council.
More than 25 street sleepers say they lost their belongings when teams from the Home Affairs and Food and Environmental Hygiene departments, accompanied by police, turned up with a garbage truck without warning at a subway in Yau Ma Tei on July 31.
Some of them met lawmakers on Thursday to make their complaint, and now plan to seek legal aid to launch a court challenge.
Ng Wai-tung of the Society for Community Organisation, which is working with the street sleepers, said lawmakers had been in touch with the government over the issue, and it had denied the street sleepers had been blocked from recovering their goods.
But Ng said the street sleepers at the subway in Ching Ping Street claimed police officers refused to let them collect their belongings before they were thrown away. Clothes and bedding were dumped, while some lost bank cards and identity documents
"We are talking about having their lives' belongings all thrown away like trash," Ng said. "This is a serious lack of respect towards their rights." He has collected accounts of events from 19 street sleepers, including two women.
A Home Affairs Department spokeswoman said that although complaints had been received from local residents on hygiene and law and order issues, it was a regular joint cleansing operation for street-sleeper sites, and "not a clearance operation to vacate the subway".
She said social workers provided support to street sleepers on the day, and they were allowed to pack their belongings.
"After they finished packing, Food and Environmental Hygiene Department contractors started to clean up the subway. Reaching each of the locations with stacked objects, [government officials] kept on reminding the street sleepers to take away their personal belongings and keep them safe," she said.
"Drawers and bags left behind were also checked for valuables and personal documents. The government staff did not forbid anyone from taking back their belongings."
She added that during the two-hour operation, department staff had allowed sufficient time for street sleepers to clear up.
In a similar case in February 2012, the government compensated 17 street sleepers who lost their belongings in a raid in Sham Shui Po. The case dragged on for over nine months, during which two street sleepers died before being able to receive the HK$2,000 payout agreed in an out-of-court settlement.
Wong Hung, an associate professor at Chinese University who specialises in community and poverty matters, said the number of street sleepers had increased in the past two years. He put this down to soaring rents and redevelopment of old neighbourhoods, which removed poor-quality but affordable housing.
He said the government had failed to tackle the root of the problem, which was deprivation and social exclusion.
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/1871149/hong-kong-street-sleepers-consider-legal-action
