Ottawa, March 26 (IANS) Canadian authorities have granted asylum to a woman and her daughter who housed Edward Snowden in Hong Kong after the former NSA contractor leaked classified documents on US surveillance programmes in 2013, the media reported on Tuesday.
The Canadian decision allows Philippines national Vanessa Rodel and her seven-year-old daughter Keana to leave Hong Kong after living in the city without proper legal status for years.
“I’m truly happy,” Rodel told CNN. “I’m so excited. I can’t sleep.”
Rodel and two Sri Lankan families put up Snowden shortly after he went public in 2013.
At the time, Snowden’s lawyer Robert Tibbo worried that his client could face possible rendition back to the US, where he was branded a traitor.
So Tibbo advised Snowden to hide with Hong Kong refugees because he thought it would be the last place anyone would look.
“This has been a seven year battle,” said Tibbo, who also represents the refugees who hid Snowden.
After Snowden left the city and was granted asylum in Russia, Rodel and the other refugees who hid him moved forward with their Hong Kong refugee status applications. Their cases were rejected in 2017.
Rodel told CNN that the process has been long, arduous and depressing. She said she came to Hong Kong because she was a victim of human trafficking in the Philippines, and is too afraid to go home.
However, as a refugee without legal status, she also did not feel safe in Hong Kong.
–IANS
ksk/bc