The Wongs’ Story

The Wong siblings were born in Mainland China. At a young age, their mother sold them to traffickers who shipped them to Hong Kong to work as child labourers. As young children in a foreign city, the Wong siblings were left to fend for themselves while suffering exploitation. The siblings spent their lives without any social or institutional support, but managed to eventually earn enough money to survive on their own. Despite their parent’s abandonment, the siblings did not forget their mother and arranged for her to live in Hong Kong with them. The siblings supported their mother financially, but she squandered their hard-earned savings to pay for her drinking and gambling habits. To put a stop to her addiction, the siblings refused to give their mother any more money. Their mother got very angry and vindictive. She contacted a local non-profit organisation making false accusations that her children had threatened to butcher her and set the house on fire. Without verifying her complaint and despite knowing of the mother’s addiction, the non-profit called for police intervention.

In an unfortunate turn of events, the siblings were misguided by a social worker who made them believe that as long as they went along with the Police, their mother would be sent to rehabilitation to help her quit alcohol. Quickly after, the siblings found themselves “voluntarily” admitted to a hospital and they underwent forced hospitalisation in a psychiatric ward.

The tragic story of the Wong siblings is a story of how the city has failed them. Trafficked and exploited at an early age, the siblings were victimswho had no recourse to support, protection and rehabilitation from their trauma.

The Wong siblings are now almost 60 years old. They have spent most of their lives lost, helpless and exhausted, but HKDI is trying to lessen their load. HKDI are now 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. HKDI is also liaising with another NGO called Concord throughout this process, so as to identify and address the common grievances faced by sufferers of mental illness.