Legal aid scheme for asylum seekers sparks conflict of interest concerns
Hong Kong Bar Association tells members not to offer services to government-backed aid scheme, as it could breach code of conduct
The Security Bureau revealed plans to launch the scheme to reduce the administrative work and costs of the screening of asylum applicants and increase the vetting capacity to 5,000 or more claims a year.
But the Bar Association and the Law Society, which have jointly run a similar scheme with public funding since 2009, the Duty Lawyer Service, expressed concerns over the new programme, as it will be run by the bureau in charge of the vetting policy.
Hong Kong is obliged to screen protection claims on grounds such as torture, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and persecution. The Immigration Department, which is under the bureau, is responsible for screening. It received between 3,638 and 5,053 claims per year over the past three years and there were 8,956 outstanding claims as of the end of March.
According to the bureau, the government-funded pilot scheme will tap into the pool of eligible lawyers serving the existing scheme and serve as a supplement to meet the backlog of claimants, who will be assigned to one of the two schemes at random.
