'Snowden Refugee' Appeal Hearing Not Fair: NGO

A member of the Canadian legal team assisting the refugee families who helped Edward Snowden has criticised a lack of transparency in appeal hearings of the Torture Claims Appeal Board.

Four adults and three children had their claims for asylum rejected by the Immigration Department, and are now appealing through the Torture Claims Appeal Board. They had sheltered US whistle blower Snowden in Hong Kong in 2013.

One of the so-called "Snowden refugees", Ajith Pushpakumara, is a former Sri Lankan soldier who reportedly fled torture in his home country and still has persecutors tracking him.

Guillaume Cliche-Rivard, from the NGO "For the Refugees", which is sponsoring the Snowden refugees as they attempt to move to Canada, said on Monday that he was not happy that international observers were barred from Pushpakumara's appeal hearing.

“We are deeply concerned as to why we were not let in this time,” he said.

“But it is again another example of lack of transparency, and for them not allowing international lawyers and observers to be able to report and observe what is going on in these closed courts again denies our client's right to be fully represented.”

Cliche-Rivard added that five days before the hearing, the Duty Lawyer Service removed Pushpakumara's lawyer of six years, Robert Tibbo, from the case.

Tibbo told RTHK that it was grossly unfair to have his legal representation changed at such short notice.

Last year the lawyer had alleged that immigration officials are trying to remove him from the case citing conflict of interest as he as Snowden's lawyer had taken the American to their homes.

Cliche-Rivard said Pushpakumara has been diagnosed with severe post-traumatic stress disorder, and the memories come back strongly and affect him greatly when he was asked to recall the persecution he faced.

He again called on Canada to act, to make sure Pushpakumara would not be deported to Sri Lanka because his life is at stake.

Should the asylum seekers have their claims rejected by the Appeal Board, it will be up to the Director of Immigration whether to detain them. However, the claimants could still seek a judicial review of the appeal board's decision.