Fwd: Hubei recovery should prompt entry ban rethink

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Simon H WANG

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Jul 30, 2020, 10:52:38 PM7/30/20

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---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: <lad...@lad.gov.hk>
Date: Thu, Jul 30, 2020 at 11:47 AM
Subject: Hubei recovery should prompt entry ban rethink
To: <simo...@hkbu.edu.hk>
Cc: <compl...@legco.gov.hk>

Dear Mr WANG,

We refer to your e-mail dated 13.7.2020 raising various issues under the Code of Access to Information. I am authorized to reply as follows :-

The statutory duty of our Department is to provide legal aid service to the applicants for legal aid who have passed both the “means test” and the “merits test” under the Legal Aid Ordinance (“the Ordinance”) to institute legal proceedings against another party(ies) or to defend legal proceedings brought by the other(s) in the District Court or courts of higher level in Hong Kong. You may refer to our website (http://www.lad.gov.hk) for the relevant explanatory leaflets of our legal aid service provided under the Ordinary Legal Aid Scheme.

Pursuant to Section 8(1) of the Ordinance, any person who wishes to be granted legal aid shall apply to the Director of Legal Aid. There is no restriction on the nationality and residency of the person who applies legal aid. Hence, a person not residing in Hong Kong (“Non-Hong Kong Applicant”) can apply for legal aid in Hong Kong for judicial review.

Regarding your request for information relating to the number of cases in which Non-Hong Kong Applicants applied for legal aid for judicial review over the past 20 years, please be informed that we do not possess such data and therefore are not in a position to provide you with the summaries of such cases. Nevertheless, you can refer to our website for our Departmental Report 2017 and 2018 for the number of legal aid applications for judicial review from 2016 to 2018.

Under normal circumstances, if an applicant wishes to apply for legal aid for judicial review, we will treat it as an urgent application which cannot be processed through our online system. The Applicant shall attend our Information and Application Services Unit of our Headquarter Office situated on 25/F, Queensway Government Offices, 66 Queensway, Hong Kong or Kowloon Branch Office situated on G/F, Mongkok Government Offices, 30 Luen Wan Street, Mongkok, Kowloon personally to submit an application for legal aid together with the originals and copies of the supporting documents and information relating to his/her financial resources and case for verification purposes.

For Non-Hong Kong Applicants who wish to apply for legal aid for judicial review but are unable to submit an application personally, we can provide them with a set of Pre-application Form and Questionnaire for Judicial Review Application, together with other ancillary documents through e-mail or by post. They can then return the completed Form and Questionnaire, together with copies of the necessary documents on means and merits by post or e-mail to our office for further processing. Upon receipt of all the application documents, our professional officer will consider the individual circumstances of each case and may make alternate arrangement in lieu of personal attendance, such as requesting the Non-Hong Kong Applicant to provide us with the requested documents / other information by post or e-mail, and making statutory declaration at their place of residence for verification purpose etc.

In relation to applications for civil legal aid, including judicial review, we pledge to make a decision of 85% of the applications within 3 months from the date of formal application. Depending on the complexity of each individual case, the processing time may differ.

Yours sincerely,
Ms Kimberly YU
for Director of Legal Aid

----- Forwarded by LADINFO/LAD/HKSARG on 30/07/2020 10:56 -----

From: LADINFO/LAD/HKSARG
To: simo...@hkbu.edu.hk
Date: 22/07/2020 13:03
Subject: Hubei recovery should prompt entry ban rethink
Sent by: KC WONG

Dear Mr WANG,

Our department has received your application for access to information on 13.7.2020. Your application is now under processing. According to paragraph 1.16 of the Code on Access to Information, our department will inform you of the latest progress of the case separately on or before 31.7.2020. In the meantime, please contact me at lad...@lad.gov.hk if you have any enquiry.

Yours sincerely,
Ms Kimberly YU
for Director of Legal Aid

----- Forwarded by LADINFO/LAD/HKSARG on 22/07/2020 12:26 -----

From: LADINFO/LAD/HKSARG
To: simo...@hkbu.edu.hk
Date: 14/07/2020 12:19
Subject: Fw: Hubei recovery should prompt entry ban rethink

Dear Mr WANG,

We acknowledge receipt of your application for access to information date 13.7.2020. We shall give you a reply in due course.

Yours sincerely,
Ms K C WONG
for Director of Legal Aid

----- Forwarded by LADINFO/LAD/HKSARG on 14/07/2020 10:19 -----

From: Simon H WANG <simo...@hkbu.edu.hk>
To: lad...@lad.gov.hk
Cc: "c...@ceo.gov.hk" <c...@ceo.gov.hk>, "cma...@cmab.gov.hk" <cma...@cmab.gov.hk>, "compl...@legco.gov.hk" <compl...@legco.gov.hk>, "compl...@ombudsman.hk" <compl...@ombudsman.hk>, enq...@viu.tv, Fanny Fung <fann...@nownews24.com>, in...@mingpao.com, in...@singtao.com, hk...@hk01.com, c...@rthk.hk, in...@hket.com, c...@881903.com, ne...@tvb.com.hk, enq...@on.cc
Date: 13/07/2020 18:16
Subject: Re: Hubei recovery should prompt entry ban rethink

Dear Sir/Madam
I am writing to seek information about the procedures for non-Hong Kong residents to apply for legal aid for judicial review. Referring to the letter to the editor https://www.scmp.com/comment/letters/article/3091359/hong-kong-coronavirus-curbs-hubei-recovery-should-prompt-entry-ban published on 2 July, a number of Hubei residents with family members in Hong Kong would like to apply for legal aid to judicially challenge the government's decision to ban the entry of Hubei residents despite the fact that no new case of infection has been reported in the province since 19 May. Here are the questions for the department to answer under the Code on Access to Information

1) Is it possible for non-Hong Kong residents currently not residing in the city to apply for legal aid for judicial review?
2) Over the past 20 years, how many non-HK residents not living in the city applied for legal aid for judicial review ? Please provide summaries of the cases if available.
3) What are the procedures for non-HK residents not living in the city to apply for legal aid for judicial review? What is the timeline for the application to be processed?

Given the time-sensitive nature of my case, please answer the questions as soon as possible. Thanks in advance for your attention. I copy this email to the Chief Executive's Office, Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Bureau, Legislative Council Secretariat and major media outlets in the city with the hope that this matter could be resolved without going through the costly legal battles.

Yours sincerely
Simon Wang

On Thu, Jul 2, 2020 at 5:45 PM Simon H WANG <simo...@hkbu.edu.hk> wrote:
Dear Sir/Madam

I refer to the letter to the editor published by my former student Ivy Cheng today in South China Morning Post
https://www.scmp.com/comment/letters/article/3091359/hong-kong-coronavirus-curbs-hubei-recovery-should-prompt-entry-ban I believe the government has failed to review its policy to ban the entry of Hubei residents and caused unnecessary trouble and inconvenience to HK residents with family members from Hubei. Please kindly look into the matter.

Yours sincerely
Simon Wang

Simon Wang, Ph.D.
Lecturer
Language Centre
Hong Kong Baptist University
Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong
http://lc.hkbu.edu.hk/staff_simon.php

Writing for the Public Project
https://sites.google.com/a/hkbu.edu.hk/write4public/home

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