Launched in 2014, Justice Centre Hong Kong is an independent, non-profit

human rights organisation A human rights group, or human rights organization, is a non-governmental organization which advocates for human rights through identification of their violation, collecting incident data, its analysis and publication, promotion of public awareness ...

that focuses on the protection of refugees and asylum seekers in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

. Hong Kong has long been a hub of migration and refuge due to wars in the region and Hong Kong’s historical role as a trading and transit

entrepôt An ''entrepôt'' (; ) or transshipment port is a port, city, or trading post where merchandise may be imported, stored, or traded, usually to be exported again. Such cities often sprang up and such ports and trading posts often developed into co ...

. There were estimated to be 14,000 refugees in the territory in 2017, and these refugees are in need of extensive legal assistance as the 0.8 substantiation rate is extremely low compared to rates of 25-62% per cent in other developed jurisdictions. Before early 2014 the organisation was known as the Hong Kong Refugee Advice Centre (HKRAC), which in 2007 had grown out of the Refugee Advice Unit from another local organisation working with refugees, Christian Action. And spun off by human rights lawyers Jennifer Stone and Raquel Amador, who were the first Directors. In 2012 Aleta Miller became Executive Director, helping HKRAC win the

Clifford Chance Clifford Chance LLP is an international law firm headquartered in London, United Kingdom, and a member of the "Magic Circle", a group of London-based multinational law firms. It ranks as one of top ten largest law firms in the world measured bo ...

Foundation Access to Justice Award in 2012, and relaunching the organisation as Justice Centre Hong Kong in 2014. From 2015 the Executive Director was Piya Muqit, who was previously head of policy and advocacy at

UNICEF UK UNICEF UK, also known as the United Kingdom Committee for UNICEF, is one of 36 UNICEF national committees based in industrialised countries. The national committees raise funds for the organisation's worldwide emergency and development work. In 20 ...

. In November 2020 Melanie McLaren was appointed Executive Director. The organisation works with civil society partners to champion the rights of persons seeking protection in Hong Kong through research and advocacy work. In addition, it provides legal and psychosocial assistance to asylum seekers, as with the very low acceptance rate of legal aid applications in Hong Kong most asylum seekers are otherwise forced to represent themselves. They also carry out evidence based policy work to try to influence and improve government policies towards their clients. Their 'Coming Clean" report in 2016 found more than 80 percent of the territory's 336,600 domestic workers are exploited, with one in six a victim of forced labour. Providing the first quantitative data on trafficking this gave Hong Kong a very low ranking on the

Global Slavery Index The Global Slavery Index is a global study of modern slavery published by the Minderoo Foundation's Walk Free initiative. Four editions have been published: in 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2018. The 2018 edition builds on the Global Estimates of Modern S ...

, and pushing Hong Kong onto the Tier 2 Watch List of the

US State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other nati ...

’s

Trafficking in Persons report The Trafficking in Persons Report, or the TIP Report, is an annual report issued since 2001 by the U.S. State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons. It ranks governments based on their perceived efforts to acknowledge a ...

.{{Cite web, url=https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/hong-kong-law-and-crime/article/2153094/plan-eliminating-human-trafficking-enough, title=Hong Kong avoids drop on US watch list for human trafficking, date=2018-06-29, website=South China Morning Post, language=en, access-date=2019-06-17

Reference

External links

Official website
Human rights organisations based in Hong Kong Human rights in Hong Kong Organizations established in 2007