Snowdens Guardian Granted Asylum By Canada

One of the refugee families who helped shelter rogue American whistleblower Edward Snowden while he was on the run in Hong Kong in 2013, has been accepted as refugees by the Canadian government, RTHK can reveal.

Vanessa Mae Rodel and her seven-year-old daughter Keana boarded an Air Canada flight at Chek Lap Kok to Toronto on Monday afternoon.

They were accompanied by three lawyers from the non-profit For the Refugees organisation, and a representative from the International Organisation for Migration, a UN agency. A Hong Kong immigration officer also accompanied them through final checks at the airport.

Rodel and her daughter will become permanent Canadian residents. This will allow Vanessa to do things that she couldn’t do in Hong Kong for almost a decade, like work, study or open a bank account. The family will also have access to the country’s healthcare system, and eventually be eligible for Canadian citizenship.

“She’s leaving a life of destitution and uncertainty, and embarking on a journey towards a normal life,” said Marc-Andre Seguin, president of For the Refugees, which has been supporting all the families that helped to shelter Snowden in Hong Kong.

For the next year, the organisation will be responsible for meeting Rodel and her daughter’s basic needs and assisting her integration into Canadian society.

Rodel had sought to be recognised as a refugee by Hong Kong after she fled persecution in the Philippines. She said she had been raped and kidnapped in the Philippines by a member of the New People’s Army, the armed wing of the Communist Party in the Philippines.

She said going back to the Philippines would put her and her daughter’s lives at risk.

“I don’t want something wrong to happen to her, I don’t want to put my daughter’s life at risk. And I don’t want to be killed,” she said. “So there’s no way for me to go back to the Philippines, I will never go back to the Philippines, for me and my daughter’s safety.”

Robert Tibbo, the lawyer who has represented Rodel since early 2012, said there were two grounds to her asylum application. One relates to gender persecution under the Refugee Convention, and a second separate ground concerns human trafficking.

“Canada assessed her case, they were rigorous in their assessment, and they took a view that she meets all the requirements,” he said. “I don’t have confidence the Hong Kong would have recognised that.”

Rodel and Tibbo also said they had been targeted by authorities after the identities of the three families that sheltered Snowden were revealed in 2016. The families’ asylum applications were all rejected on the same day less than a year later – decisions they all subsequently appealed.

Sri Lankan police were also alleged to have been looking for the families in Hong Kong.

Rodel said despite how she had been treated by authorities after her identity was revealed, she has no regrets about opening her door to Snowden.

“I just wanted to protect him,” she said. “I’m so happy to be part of his life. I’m very proud of myself, and I’ve very proud of him.”

“If still he needs my help, I will help him again.”

Rodel said she is now looking forward to restarting her life in Canada. She said she wants to go to university, and study journalism. She is also looking forward to taking Keana – who was born in Hong Kong, but remained stateless – ice-skating and to see snow for the first time.

Canada has not yet made a decision on the cases of former Sri Lankan soldier Ajith, and husband and wife Supun and Nadeeka, and their two stateless children, Sethumdi and Dinath.