The seven men and women who sheltered the whistleblower in 2013 are awaiting the result of their final appeal





For the past few years, Supun Kellapatha and his wife Nadeeka Dilrukshi, Sri Lankan asylum seekers in Hong Kong, have tried to make themselves invisible. They go out as little as possible and hardly socialise. He sometimes takes their children, a two-year-old boy and six-year old girl, to the cinema but only when fewer people will see them.



He admits trying to give them a normal childhood doesn’t always work. “Sometimes they ask me, ‘Why don’t we go out? Why don’t we talk to those people? Why are you always saying, ‘take care, take care?’”

Almost two years ago, the family was revealed to be part of a group of asylum seekers that sheltered Edward Snowden in Hong Kong in 2013 after the former National Security Agency contractor outed himself as the whistleblower who released details of the US government’s Prism surveillance program. Since then, Kellapatha and his wife have feared reprisals and being tracked down by Sri Lankan police, or other authorities.

They are known as the “Snowden refugees” and lived in obscurity until two years ago when their identities were disclosed after a documentary by Oliver Stone revealed asylum seekers in Hong Kong had hidden Snowden.

Edward Snowden: 'The people are still powerless, but now they're aware' Read more

Now they face deportation to their home countries where they say their lives will be in danger.



The four adults and three children are in the process of appealing against their previously rejected asylum applications. Last week, Hong Kong’s Torture Claims Appeal Board heard the final appeal, that of an ex-Sri Lankan soldier named Ajith Kankanamalage.

Once complete, authorities are expected to make a decision on all seven cases. Given Hong Kong’s less than 1% acceptance rate for asylum seekers, their lawyers are pushing for Canada to accept them before they face deportation.

“The thing we can do is plead with Canada to do the right thing,” said Marc-Andre Seguin, president of For the Refugees, a team of Canadian lawyers advocating for the group. “We’re essentially trying to avoid death by delay.”Applications have been made in Quebec, one of few jurisdictions that allows refugees who have not already been screened by the UN to apply.

The lawyers last month applied for an emergency visa for Kankanamalage, whose lawyers say suffers from severe PTSD. A temporary resident permit would allow him to seek medical help in Canada while his application is processed.

‘We are worried about his life’

Kankanamalage fled Sri Lanka in 2003 after almost three years in the military where he had been beaten and sexually assaulted as a young recruit. After deserting in 1995, he was caught by the military in 2002, and tortured. He was slated to be executed but managed instead to get released. He deserted again and fled the country.

He ended up in Hong Kong, stranded by brokers who had promised to get him to Canada, where he met Robert Tibbo, a human rights lawyer. In 2013, Tibbo was called in to help Snowden and he asked Kankanamalage, someone he knew to be kind and discreet, if he would assist.

“I knew Ajith would show great humanity and provide the care Mr Snowden required,” he said. “Canada is now being asked to protect Ajith.” Kankanamalage’s lawyers say he is likely to be treated as a military deserter in Sri Lanka, where he would face detention, torture, and possiblydeath.

Kankanamalage has suffered PTSD since his arrival in Hong Kong. But since about September, his condition has worsened, triggered in part by the appeal process. “He’s so upset. He’s so down. He doesn’t want to talk,” said Vanessa Rodel, an asylum seeker from the Philippines who also housed Snowden. “We’re worried about his life.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Vanessa Rodel and her daughter Keana Photograph: Lily Kuo/The Guardian

Fear of reprisals

A spokesperson for Canada’s minister of immigration, refugee, and citizenship, declined to comment on Kankanamalage’s application for a temporary resident permit, citing privacy concerns. Asylum claims are generally processed on a “first-in, first out basis,” the spokesperson said, adding that cases can be expedited if it is determined the asylum seekers are in need of urgent protection.

The Snowden refugees and their advocates say urgent protection is exactly what they need. If not expedited, their applications in Canada could take another three years.

After coming out to media in 2016, Kellapatha and Dilrukshi fear reprisals back in Sri Lanka will be even worse. In her 20s, Dilrukshi became involved with a man known for his political connections. After their relationship ended, he raped and blackmailed her, demanding sex from her for years. She left for Hong Kong in 2007.

Kellapatha fled in 2005 to escape the family of his former wife who opposed their union over his family’s support of a rival political family. After they beat him badly and left him for dead, he decided to leave.

Their photos and stories have been broadcast throughout Sri Lanka, where they are called traitors for going public with their stories. The couple’s lawyers say they have received reports of Sri Lankan criminal investigators searching for the three Sri Lankan refugees, reports the Sri Lankan police deny. “You can see how they would treat us,” Kellapatha said.

Rodel was abducted by members of New People’s Army (NPA), the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines, where she was repeatedly raped and beaten when she tried to escape. Eventually she was able to get away and fled to Hong Kong in 2002.

She and her daughter, aged six, would be easy to find in her hometown, a small village in the north, not far from where the NPA operates. “I know I’m not safe in the Philippines,” she said.

In July last year, Canada’s immigration ministry told the Guardian no commitment had been made to expedite the applications of the seven asylum seekers. Correspondence from the ministry obtained by the Guardian suggests differently, with ministry staff noting that “the processing of these applications has been initiated on an expedited basis.” When asked about the discrepancy, the ministry declined to comment, citing privacy concerns and an ongoing court case.

“It’s hard not to believe there is no external pressure here,” said Guillaume Cliche-Rivard, a lawyer with For the Refugees working on Kankanamalage’s case. “The US probably would not find it a very nice gesture for Canada to accept the Snowden refugees,” he said.

The group say they don’t regret taking in the whistleblower, but life isn’t easy.

Rodel and her daughter mostly stay home where they have a map on the wall. Her daughter likes to ask Rodel to point out where they will be going: the big country marked Canada. “We can start a new life,” she says.