She made mistakes in some of the answers she gave when applying for asylum, mistakes that may well have cost “H.H.” her freedom, as Massimo Introvigne sees it (Bitter Winter, August 7, 2024).
As Western scholars have increasingly studied the [Church of Almighty God] and debunked the fake news about the movement spread by China abroad through its embassies, many CAG refugees have been granted asylum. But not all. In some cases, asylum commissions and courts are still not well informed about the CAG. In others, CAG asylum seekers, like other Chinese refugees, make mistakes in their applications because of lack of language skills and familiarity with Western laws.
A key principle of international refugee law is non-refoulement. No matter whether asylum is granted, refugees cannot be deported to countries where they are at risk of persecution, imprisonment, and torture….
Italy used to be a safe haven for CAG refugees. Not all were granted asylum, but the principle of non-refoulement was generally respected. Unfortunately, it seems that this is no longer the case. “Bitter Winter” has received the legal documents about the case of H.H., a middle-aged female CAG devotee. We know her real name but are not publishing it as this may make her position in China even worse.
H.H. joined the Church of Almighty God in 2005, when the Chinese government had started cracking down on the religion. After years of “playing a cat-and-mouse game with police” and barely escaping arrest a couple of times, another member of the church was tortured into revealing her location. She decided that it was time to leave the country, and she went to Italy.
Italian officials are sometimes skeptical that a person wanted by the police in China would be able to leave the country—get a passport, get past checkpoints “equipped with facial recognition,” etc. H.H. did what others have done, bribe officials. “China has one of the highest percentages of administrative corruption cases in the world.” She was also helped by a relative in the government.
In Italy, although H.H. was able to obtain a temporary residence permit, officials twice rejected her appeal for asylum, in 2018 and in 2020. Finally, they deported her.
So now she is in China again, having “miraculously passed immigration” on her way back; and she is in hiding.
“Those who decided to deport H.H. to China knew she was a CAG member. One wonders whether they were also aware of multiple Italian decisions, including a very recent one, confirming that being a member of the CAG is enough to be at risk of arrest and worse in China; and of the 2021 decision of the United Nations Committee against Torture stating that CAG devotees should not be deported to China because they are at risk of being tortured there.”
