Peter, left behind in Hong Kong following Trump’s refugee ban, has gradually got back on his feet. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP. Used with permission.

This report was written by Irene Chan and published in Hong Kong Free Press on May 25, 2025. The following edited version is published as part of a content partnership agreement with Global Voices.

Peter, a refugee in Hong Kong, fled political persecution in his home country in Africa. But he never thought he would become a victim again — this time because of a foreign leader thousands of kilometres away.

He was scheduled to leave Hong Kong for resettlement in the US on February 4, but the plan was in shambles after Donald Trump was re-elected as president of the United States.

In January, Peter — who declined to disclose his full name and country of origin due to safety concerns — made preparations for his departure.

But on January 20, just hours after taking office, President Trump, infamous for his anti-immigrant rhetoric, signed an executive order, indefinitely suspending the US Refugee Admission Program (USRAP).

The executive order also called for a report from the Department of Homeland Security within 90 days to consider whether to resume refugee admissions. Yet, the April 20 deadline came and went without any announcement.

With a stroke of a pen, Trump upended the lives of many refugees like Peter around the world. They face a life in limbo, unable to enter the US despite having received approval for resettlement, and are forced to stay in a place without a path to permanent residency or citizenship.

The number of refugees admitted into the US annually actually decreased, from over 200,000 in 1980, when USRAP started, to around 100,000 in 2024, before Trump began his second term.

Citing “the interests of the United States” and the country’s lack of “ability to absorb large numbers of migrants, and in particular, refugees”, Trump ordered the suspension of USRAP. Critics slammed the decision, calling it “unjustified” and pointing out that studies — including those by the government — showed refugees “have a positive economic effect on the United States”.

As a victim of Trump’s orders, Peter felt disappointed while trying to be understanding. “It is unfair to us, but the fairest thing from their perspective,” Peter told HKFP, referring to US policymakers. “They’re trying to sort out their house, to fix their house, right?” Peter said:

I understand that people handling refugee cases are also kind of overwhelmed… struggling to screen out who is a genuine refugee, but again, that doesn’t give them the right to make [the lives of] people who are genuine refugees so hard. But people don’t choose to become refugees. Refugees are victims of circumstances, victims of people’s decisions, victims of people’s fights, and they find themselves to be victims for a lifetime.

As of October 2024, there were 37.9 million refugees worldwide, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). In Hong Kong, there were 359 recognised refugees from late 2009 to March 2025, according to the Immigration Department’s data.

Now, four months after the ill-fated news, Peter has slowly gotten back on his feet.

After back-and-forth negotiations with his landlord, he was allowed to stay in the subdivided flat. His church agreed to hire him as a pastor again. In late April, he started working after receiving a work permit from the Hong Kong Immigration Department.

“I am the luckiest,” said Peter, in his 40s, as he compared himself with many other refugees affected by the US ban. But like them, he was pessimistic about future resettlement.

‘Back to square one’

Around 10 refugees served by The Christian Action Centre for Refugees in Hong Kong had prepared to leave for the US before the suspension was announced.

Jeffrey Andrews is a social worker and centre-in-charge of the Christian Action Centre for Refugees. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP. Used with permission.

Social worker and centre-in-charge Jeffrey Andrews explained how Trump's decision affected the refugees:

Some had resigned from their jobs, their kids had withdrawn from school, and their house had been returned to the landlord. They are now back to square one, just like the day they arrived in Hong Kong to seek asylum.

Most refugees directly affected by Trump’s policy have not secured jobs in Hong Kong again after resigning in preparation for departure, he said. Dozens of refugees he knows expect their waiting time for resettlement to be prolonged.

From asylum seekers to resettlement

There were more than 15,000 asylum seekers in Hong Kong as of June 2024, according to the local NGO Justice Centre Hong Kong. They must go through lengthy screening and security vetting procedures before they finally see a glimpse of hope for overseas resettlement.

The city, however, does not grant resettlement. Upon arriving in Hong Kong, asylum seekers can file non-refoulement claims with the city’s Immigration Department, which assesses whether their claims of fear of persecution are substantiated.

If so, the government will not refoul them from Hong Kong. It will refer their cases to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to decide their refugee status.

If UNHCR recognises them as refugees, Hong Kong officials will try to arrange resettlement, mainly to Canada and the US, the world’s largest resettlement countries. Only after refugees are resettled do they gain the right to become naturalised citizens.

“But resettlement is not a right for refugees according to UNHCR, which means it is not guaranteed,” said Andrews.

Starting from their arrival in Hong Kong, asylum seekers wait an average of 10-15 years to be recognised as refugees and to be resettled in a third country, the social worker said.

Peter was a school principal when he fled his country after suffering torture and political persecution. He arrived in Hong Kong in 2016 and had to wait around one year to be recognised as a refugee, which he said was “relatively fast”.

It took him another seven years to be resettled. He said he was thrilled when UNHCR told him that the US had granted him asylum and that the US Citizenship and Immigration Services had approved his resettlement.

Niki Wong, a programme manager at Branches of Hope, a Vine Church-founded NGO serving refugees and asylum seekers, told HKFP that refugees endured a longer waiting time over the past few years because Western countries suspended refugee resettlement during the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, just as the resettlement programme returned to normal, they were hit by Trump’s refugee ban.

Wong said that although most US-bound refugees he knows could find a place to live and carry on with their lives in the city, they still felt frustrated and hopeless because of an uncertain future.

Decades of waiting

Aimé Girimana, who has been in Hong Kong for 21 years, is another African refugee affected by Trump’s policy.

Aimé Girimana, a refugee from East Africa, has been waiting for resettlement for 21 years in Hong Kong. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP. Used with permission.

Girimana, who works as a community partnerships officer at Justice Centre Hong Kong, was a human rights lawyer in an East African country.

He arrived in Hong Kong in 2004, leaving behind his wife and children, to escape political persecution in his home country. “As I knew my life was under threat, I fled from my office directly to the airport,” he told HKFP.

At that time, UNHCR — not the Immigration Department — was responsible for assessing persecution claims in Hong Kong. Girimana said it took only three days for him to be recognised as a refugee, but waiting for resettlement was far longer than he had ever imagined.

He said UNHCR had difficulties finding him permanent asylum because of his political activism in his home country. In 2006, UNHCR assigned him to be resettled in Canada, but Canadian authorities refused.

It was not until December 2023 that he learned the US had expanded the Welcome Corps programme, allowing private individuals to sponsor refugees they know and welcome them to be resettled in the US under USRAP.

Girimana successfully reached out to five American sponsors as requested by the programme. He went through the first interview in October and was waiting for the final interview when Trump announced the suspension of USRAP, including the Welcome Corps. He said,

As a human being, your life is always dependent on others. It’s just like that anybody can decide on your life.

Nonetheless, Girimana, who is in his 60s, is grateful to have a job in Hong Kong that allows him to work with the refugee community. It took years for him to get to where he is today.

“It’s my duty”

When he arrived in Hong Kong, Girimana found it difficult to support himself because refugees and asylum seekers were not allowed to work. He took the initiative to collect food, clothes, and electrical appliances to help refugee and asylum seeker families.

He also worked with lawmakers and spoke at Legislative Council sessions to raise awareness.

Girimana recalled that in his early years in Hong Kong, refugees and asylum seekers were either treated as if they were invisible or faced prejudice. “Prejudice [against] refugees was really bad. People didn’t have any awareness of refugees and thought that refugees were the same as economic immigrants.” he said.

Having no legal right to work, most refugees and asylum seekers rely on a monthly allowance that the government only began to provide in 2006.

In 2014, the government increased the allowance, giving an adult asylum seeker or refugee a total of HKD 3,200 to HKD 3,420 (USD 408 to USD 436) in monthly assistance —  HKD 1,500 for rent, HKD 300 for utilities, HKD 200 to HKD 420 for transport, and HKD 1,200 in food coupons — plus a rent deposit of HKD 3,000. The amounts have not changed since. For reference, the poverty line in Hong Kong was marked at HKD 4,400 per month as of 2020.

In 2010, Girimana was among four refugees and a torture claimant who filed a judicial review of their right to work in Hong Kong. They lost in the Court of First Instance and the Court of Appeal in 2011 and 2012, respectively.

The case ultimately went to the Court of Final Appeal. The top court ruled in 2014, upholding the lower courts’ decisions that refugees have no constitutional right to work but do have a “discretionary permit” granted by the director of the Immigration Department.

In 2013, Girimana got his first job in Hong Kong. It set a precedent, allowing refugees with a job offer to apply for permission to work from the Immigration Department.

Uzma Naveed, a refugee from a country in South Asia, has been working as a diversity and inclusion coordinator at the Centre for Refugees for nearly two years.

Uzma Naveed, a South Asian refugee who arrived in Hong Kong 10 years ago, is a diversity and inclusion coordinator at the Christian Action Centre for Refugees. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.

She told HKFP that she arrived in Hong Kong 10 years ago with her husband and child after religious persecution forced them to flee their country. Their lives changed overnight, from a comfortable middle-class existence to living hand to mouth.

Uzma was finally recognised as a refugee in 2023 after going through exhaustive screenings for eight years, essentially — in her words — “repeating the trauma again and again”. She and her family are still waiting for UNHCR’s resettlement.

However, with the USRAP suspension, she does not see much hope in the near future of finding a permanent home.

At the Centre for Refugees, she organises activities, including cooking, sewing, yoga, and basketball, for refugees and asylum seekers to build “a home away from home”.

“Every refugee has some kind of depression. No one is living a good life”, said Uzma, in her 30s.

For refugees and asylum seekers – many of whom live in subdivided units – knowing others with similar experiences can be empowering, she added.

In early February, four American NGOs filed a lawsuit challenging Trump’s refugee ban and funding halt for refugee humanitarian aid.

On May 15, a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to “immediately” resettle around 160 refugees who were scheduled to travel to the US on or before February 3. For an additional 120,000 refugees “who had arranged and confirmable travel” to the US after February 3, the court would appoint an official to help conduct a case-by-case review.

However, as of May 24, the Trump administration has yet to take any action.

Peter is unsure about his resettlement, saying it depends on whether the US will lift the ban.

Meanwhile, prejudices against asylum seekers and refugees persist. Some Hong Kong lawmakers still talk about “bogus refugees” who they claim commit crimes and waste public expenditure — allegations that activists call “racist” and “xenophobic”.

Despite living in limbo, Girimana is determined to continue raising public awareness. He said:

It’s my duty when I fled my country. You could blame the system [of screening refugees], but don’t blame those people looking for safety as refugees.