Our clients’ stories
Hanh’s Story
Hanh* was brought to Hong Kong at only 11 years old. Neglected and far away from his homeland, Hanh had a very challenging start to life.
Many years later, most of Hanh’s life has been marked by uncertainty and imprisonment. Having served a prison sentence Hanh was meant to be released three years ago.
Marcel’s Story
Marcel* is from Madagascar. For many years, he has worked as a mechanic as well as a bus and taxi driver to provide for his wife Ana and his two sons. In 2018, he began working in a neighbouring country for an employer known to him as Andre. Not too long after he started working for Andre, he was instructed to carry a suitcase of tortoises to Hong Kong…
Solomon’s Story
HKDI worked with Solomon, who fled to Hong Kong in 2010 from Nigeria, to keep him, his wife from Hong Kong (Dora), and their four children safe and united. We are also providing counselling services for Solomon and Dora, who have both suffered extensively from the physical, emotional, and legal ordeal of being asylum seekers in Hong Kong.
Walter’ Story
Walter is from Hong Kong and was wrongly accused of an inclination to violence and unfairly placed under a conditional discharge order for many years. HKDI helped him to prepare a judicial review to challenge the legality of conditional discharge orders, while our counselling services provided him a much needed opportunity to process his trauma.
The Wongs’ Story
Trafficked and exploited at an early age, the Wong siblings were victims who had no recourse to support, protection and rehabilitation from their trauma. Now almost 60 years old, HKDI is assisting them in obtaining legal advice to explore ways to address the system’s failure, so that others do not need to go through the same ordeal.
Binita’s Story
HKDI, together with counsel Albert Wong, Patricia Ho & Associates, and with students from the Refugee & Human Trafficking Clinic in the Faculty of Law at the University of Hong Kong, assisted Binita, a victim of trafficking, to prepare a judicial review to challenge the authorities’ decision not to classify her as a victim. On 24 March 2023, permission to launch a judicial review was granted (first stage) and the case is now pending judgment.
Alan’s Story
Alan, his wife, and their four children (7-19 years old), had to leave their home country in North Africa to escape persecution from community members of the majority religion there. The Hong Kong government recognized their plight and granted them non-refoulement protection, but they became trapped in limbo when the UNHCR decided against their application. HKDI has been assisting Alan and his family to apply for residency on a humanitarian basis, and has also provided counselling for Alan’s eldest daughter and is working with her school to provide an ADHD assessment.
Rose’s Story
Rose is a Pakistani student living in Hong Kong, who was beaten by her father and forced to marry to her cousin. Dignity Institute is now assisting her to find safe shelter from her family, to leave her forced marriage and explore ways to advocate for the criminalisation of forced marriage in Hong Kong.
Sammy’s Story
Sammy grew up enduring harrowing hardship. After years of navigating Hong Kong’s legal and social support system as a refugee, Sammy came to HKDI, where he has received desperately needed support, and where we brought to light his human trafficking experience that previously had gone unnoticed by all other organisations.
Carina’s Story
Despite clear evidence, Carina’s human trafficking experience was never investigated by the authorities in Hong kong, and she was sentenced to 25 years in prison. After losing her criminal appeal in March 2020, Carina reached out to Dignity Institute to seek assistance. We are now pooling their know-how and resources together to gather new evidence about Carina’s experiences so that her criminal matter can be reopened.
Jane’s Story
After being falsely recruited for a job in Hong Kong to support her children back home in the Philippines, Jane was subjected to forced labour, sexual abuse and restricted freedom of movement where she was held. Through our integrated assessment, we quickly determined that Jane was a victim of human trafficking, and assisted her in the legal hurdles she faced in returning to her home country and pursuing legal redress.