The research team will publish research briefs, academic articles, and media pieces, and integrate them into advocacy and educational activities.
Upcoming events
Designing Impactful Research under the RGC Research Impact Fund (~Aug 2023), in collaboration with Society for Hong Kong Studies. Hybrid.
For more information, please check their page for latest updates
“Immigration Detention and Vulnerable Migrants in Hong Kong” Project Symposium (June 10, 2023), by invitation. In-person.
Media publications
Hong Kong should rethink rules that threaten to make immigration detention feel like jail
South China Morning Post
Dec 20, 2022
The proposed changes include allowing intimate body searches, raising maximum solitary confinement to 28 days and a new detention centre managed by the prisons authority. This is a disturbing move towards making an already opaque, non-judicial system punitive, especially when many have been victims of trafficking or persecution. Read more
Ming Pao
Oct 7, 2022
過去數月，香港媒體報道港人被販賣到東南亞的新聞引起廣泛關注。其實不單有港人會被販賣到外地，外地移民亦常有被販賣到香港。人口販賣受害者處於極脆弱的狀况，他們不單面對剝削及虐待的風險，更會因違反入境規定而遭入境羈留及遣返。 Read more (Chi only)
Hong Kong’s human trafficking victims need to be supported, not detained
South China Morning Post
Oct 1, 2022
Reports in the past month of Hong Kong residents trafficked to Southeast Asia have shocked the public. In turn, NGOs have highlighted that many migrants are trafficked into Hong Kong. Such trafficking hides in plain sight, at least in part because of serious gaps in anti-trafficking policy. Read more
In collaboration with Kontinentalist
Aug 4, 2022
Stuck in the system: Immigration detention in Hong Kong
Created in collaboration with Kontinentalist, a data storytelling team, this visual story is an introduction to the topic of immigration detention in Hong Kong. The interactive story is designed with the general reader in mind, and features the research and data collected in the past two years paired with compelling data visualizations and illustrations. Read more
Data on asylum seekers detained in Hong Kong should be disclosed more proactively, legal expert says
South China Morning Post
Jun 13, 2022
Research efforts show that public information on immigration detainees was harder to find than data for prisoners. Read more
Hong Kong gov’t should ‘proactively disclose’ info on immigration detainees, legal scholar says
Hong Kong Free Press
Jun 13, 2022
Basic information about immigration detention should be in the public domain. This would foster research and analysis that can lead to improvements. It would also foster public discussion and scrutiny, which is of course, another accountability mechanism for good governance. Read more
Ming Pao
Feb 18, 2022
將檢疫隔離類比為羈留並不令人訝異，特別是入境羈留，因為兩者皆不是因為犯罪，而是以公共利益而被禁閉。不過「隔離」與「羈留」在待遇、設施以至禁閉期等方面，可謂有天壤之別，因此不能相提並論。 Read more (Chi only)
Bio-tracked, Mistreated, Hog-tied: Immigration Detention in East Asia in 2021
The Diplomat
Dec 30, 2021
A review of immigration detention in Hong Kong, Japan, and South Korea in 2021 shows that the disturbing mix of opaque and easily-imposed detention, detainee vulnerability, and public apathy can have serious, and sometimes fatal, consequences. Read more
Hong Kong immigration bill: baseless rhetoric on refugees only hurts the most vulnerable
South China Morning Post
May 16, 2021
Particularly since 2016, refugees have been scapegoated and detained to suit the political platforms of certain lawmakers. Rhetoric that has no basis in data translates into very real consequences for vulnerable migrants. Read more; See our sources
Overused, Underexamined? Immigration Detention in Hong Kong
Border Criminologies (University of Oxford)
April 26, 2021
Our early findings indicate that many immigration detainees in Hong Kong are low-income migrant workers and non-refoulement claimants. The legal framework is designed in ways that renders these groups more susceptible to detention. Read more
Hostile Harbor: Proposed Legal Reform Bodes Ill for Vulnerable Migrants in Hong Kong
The Diplomat
Feb 18, 2021
If it passes, the Immigration (Amendment) Bill will make an asylum system that is already harsh even less hospitable toward people fleeing persecution in their home countries. Read more
Covid-19 Impacts on Immigration Detention: Global Responses (p21-23)
International Detention Coalition
Oct 29, 2020
In this article, we discuss the Hong Kong S.A.R. government’s COVID-19 response in relation to irregular migrants and asylum seekers. Read more
Media mentions
AFP – Hong Kong asylum seekers fear deportation under tightened policy
Mar 20, 2023
The Globe and Mail – For asylum seekers, Hong Kong is easy to reach but hard to stay in thanks to Kafkaesque policies
Oct 12, 2021
Workshops
April 22, 2023
Know Your Rights and immigration detention, in collaboration with Branches of Hope and STOP
This workshop focuses on information about immigration detention in Hong Kong and ways which migrant domestic workers may find themselves in immigration detention.
Nov 2022 – April 2023
Debriefing mutual support group for civil society groups
Volunteers and helping professionals who support immigration detainees and marginalized migrants may experience various emotions and challenges, but often lack space to discuss them. A monthly debriefing support group led by professional counsellors is available to provide a safe space for attendees to reflect on their experiences working with detainees and to support one another through sharing and self-care practices.
Mar 13, 2023
Research with Vulnerable Groups in Practice, in collaboration with Society for Hong Kong Studies
This event was held as part of the Research Methodology Sharing Series with the Society for Hong Kong Studies. See more details on their events page.
Mar 2, 2023
Research with Vulnerable Groups in Practice, in collaboration with Digital Scholarship Lab, CUHK Library
This event was held as part of the Research Methodology Sharing Series with the Digital Scholarship Lab, CUHK Library.
Feb 14, 2023
How to Obtain Official Data under the Code of Access to Information, in collaboration with Digital Scholarship Lab, CUHK Library
This event was held as part of the Research Methodology Sharing Series with the Digital Scholarship Lab, CUHK Library.
Feb 9, 2023
How to Obtain Official Data under the Code of Access to Information, in collaboration with Society for Hong Kong Studies
This event was held as part of the Research Methodology Sharing Series with the Society for Hong Kong Studies. See more details on their events page.
Oct 13, 2022
Data on detention: Using official data in qualitative research, in collaboration with The Hong Kong Council of Social Service
Aug 14, 2022
Mental health workshop for volunteers and helping professionals
Immigration detention can be a traumatic experience for people being detained and their families, potentially causing retraumatization. Workers and volunteers assisting detainees and their families may also experience secondary trauma. To address these challenges, we organised a workshop for helping professionals to learn about primary trauma (the trauma experienced by detainees) and secondary trauma (the trauma experienced by their caregivers, such as volunteers), as well as self-care practices.
May 26, 2022
Data on detention: Using official data in qualitative research, in collaboration with The Hong Kong Council of Social Service
April 22, 2022
Data on detention: Using official data in qualitative research, in collaboration with Society for Hong Kong Studies
In this workshop, we discuss the landscape of open government data and challenges in accessing data. We share our efforts in obtaining official data through access-to-information (ATI) requests via the Code on Access to Information, including specific examples of challenges we faced and how we navigated them. More information here.
Mar 18, 2022
Interpreters’ training, in collaboration with Centre for Harmony and Enhancement of Ethnic Minority Residents (CHEER)
Nov 6-7, 2021
Interpreters’ training, in collaboration with Centre for Harmony and Enhancement of Ethnic Minority Residents (CHEER)
Events
Feb 27, 2023
‘Ushiku’: Detainees Seeking Asylum in Japan Speak Out, film screening at Foreign Correspondents’ Club
“Ushiku” takes viewers deep into the psychological and physical environment inhabited by foreign detainees in one of the largest immigration centres in Japan. The film screening was followed by a panel discussion with Thomas Ash, the director; Prof. Surabhi Chopra, CUHK; and Prof. Ai Kihara-Hunt, University of Tokyo.
Feb 23, 2023
Immigration detention, guest lecture at The Education University of Hong Kong
In this lecture, the administrative nature of immigration detention and the systematic vulnerability that migrants face in the pathways leading to detention were introduced. Additionally, the mental health impacts that detention can have on detainees in Hong Kong were examined.
Feb 2, 2023
Designing Impactful Research under the RGC Research Impact Fund, in collaboration with Digital Scholarship Lab, CUHK Library
This event was held as part of the Research Methodology Sharing Series with the Digital Scholarship Lab, CUHK Library.
Mar 15, 2022
Global citizenship, guest lecture at The Education University of Hong Kong
The 1-hour seminar was conducted as a guest lecture for the class Citizenship Education: Implications for Global and HK Studies. The talk discussed citizenship as a process of inclusion and exclusion, the non-citizen, and citizenship in relation to migration and immigration detention in the context of Hong Kong.
Feb 22, 2022
Know Your Rights (Tagalog)
This seminar focuses on Know Your Rights information for migrant domestic workers, with Tagalog interpretation.
Feb 3, 2022
Know Your Rights (Indonesian Bahasa), in collaboration with Centre for Migrant Domestic Workers at Christian Action
This seminar focuses on Know Your Rights information for migrant domestic workers, with Indonesian Bahasa interpretation. Watch here
March 31, 2021
Refugee Protection in Hong Kong Today, in collaboration with The Chinese University of Hong Kong Library
The talk was co-hosted with The Chinese University of Hong Kong Library as part of a series of events organized by the exhibition Nàng Tự Do, an exhibition of artwork produced in the detention camps during the arrivals of the Vietnamese refugees.
Conferences
Dec 16, 2022
Stuck in Limbo: Mental Health in Administrative Immigration Detention in Hong Kong, presented at Hong Kong Sociological Association
This paper argues that beyond the clinical nature of administrative detention lies the visceral impacts of detention on the mental health of detainees. Detention can be distressing, retraumatising and even fatal for detainees and asylum seekers who are escaping from torture, exploitation, or awaiting an uncertain future after repatriation. The isolation and stress faced by detainees have also intensified during the time of pandemic, due to factors such as anxiety of falling ill and visit suspensions to detention centres.
June 24-5, 2022
Immigration detention in Hong Kong: Advocacy in the dark, presented at Hong Kong Studies as Praxis (Society for Hong Kong Studies Annual Conference 2022)
Feb 4-6, 2022
Visualising the law: Immigration detention in Hong Kong, presented at Outlier Conference 2022 (Data Visualization Society)
Sept 16-18, 2021
A Hub that can never be a Home: Low-income Migrants and Crimmigration in Hong Kong, presented at Global Borderlands: Getting to the Core of Crimmigration
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