Employer of ‘Live-Out’ FDH Charged for Allegedly Trying to Stop her Arrest
A Canadian professor is in hot water after he allegedly tried to stop Immigration officers from detaining his “live-out” Filipino domestic worker in Ma Wan, Park Island.
Joseph James Unrau pleaded not guilty at the Shatin Magistrates’ Courts to the charge of obstructing members of the Immigration service who detained his domestic worker, Filipino Mary Rose A.
“He ignored my warnings. He tried to pull away Mary Rose towards the direction of Park Island,” an Immigration officer surnamed Ho told the court on October 30.
Mary Rose was charged earlier with making false representation to an Immigration officer but the government decided not to pursue the case after it was revealed in court that Immigration officers interrogated her although she was sick.
They only relented when she started vomiting. If her case had proceeded, Mary Rose was going to use it to challenge the constitutionality of the Hong Kong regulation requiring foreign domestic workers to live in the residence of their employers.
The Immigration agents arrested Mary Rose at around 7 a.m. on January 28 in Tin Yu New Village, Ma Wan.
Ho and four other Immigration officers went to a village house after getting a tip that a foreign domestic worker was living there.
“We arrived at 6:23 a.m. and I knocked on the door. I heard a female voice say, `Who is it?’” Ho said.
“I replied, ‘This is an immigration officer. Please open the door for identification check,” he added.
But instead of opening the door, the female inside did not answer any more questions while the lights inside the house were turned off.
At around 6:42 a.m., Unrau arrived at the scene and asked who they were and what Ho and his team were doing there.
Ho said he introduced himself and his team and told the Canadian that they had received information that a foreign domestic helper was living in the village house.
“He told us he was the tenant of that village house. When we asked him to open the door for us to conduct an investigation, he refused and left, saying he was calling the police for assistance,” Ho said.
At 6:49 a.m., Unrau returned and again asked what Ho and his team were doing and if they had the authority to do so.
He also asked them to leave, adding that he would just ask the “person inside the village house to go to (immigration) office with a statement.”
“At that time, I declined his request. Why? Because we still can’t confirm the identification of the female in the village house,” Ho said.
At 7:10 a.m., Mary Rose came out of the village house and Unrau hugged her, putting his left arm over her, Ho said.
But when she produced her HKID, Unrau embraced Mary Rose “with his arms to prevent Mary Rose from producing her ID card to us,” the officer said.
“He used one of his arms to embrace Mary Rose while using the other to block the hand of Mary Rose,” Ho added.
He said he asked the Filipino woman why she was living in the village house but Mary Rose allegedly only answered that she was Unrau’s domestic worker.
Ho said they then informed Mary Rose that she had to be detained but Unrau allegedly intervened and started “pulling” her away.
“At that time, we wanted defendant not to pull away Mary Rose further because she was under our detention already (but) he ignored our warnings,” Ho said.
“Suddenly, the defendant used his left hand to pat and hit the left hand of my colleague (who intended) to bring Mary Rose on board a government vehicle,” he added.
Ho said he again warned Unrau, saying: “You are hitting an Immigration officer. You are obstructing our duty. Stop it. Do not do it anymore.”
Ho’s colleagues then successfully separated Unrau and Mary Rose and the domestic worker was brought to the waiting government vehicle. Unrau allegedly tried to catch up with her.
“Because the defendant was still resisting at the time, and I saw him pat on and hit the hands of my female colleague, so I told him: ‘You are now under arrest,’” Ho said.
But during the hearing on Nov. 12, defense counsel Emma Tsang said Unrau did nothing wrong in pulling Mary Rose away from the Immigration officers because they allegedly acted illegally when they detained the domestic worker.
“Their power was unlawfully exercised..The conduct of the Immigration team was not lawful,” Tsang told Deputy Magistrate Jolie Chao.
She said the Immigration Ordinance allows immigration officers to detain a person for “inquiry” but only if there was proof that the suspect “may abscond.”
“There were no concerns that Mary Rose would abscond. They were in possession of her ID card,” Tsang said.
On the other hand, the ordinance allows immigration officers to declare an arrest but they should also categorically inform the arrested person why he or she was being arrested. Tsang said this was not done in Mary Rose’s case.
“Failing to do so would constitute an unlawful arrest,” she added.
Tsang also pointed out the “material inconsistencies” in the court testimonies of Ho and two of teammates.
While Ho said Unrau tried to stop Mary Rose from giving her HKID after she came out of the house, Ho’s teammates testified that “there was no trouble whatsoever” in getting her ID, Tsang said.
She said while Ho said Unrau was able to pull away Mary Rose by 15 to 20 meters, his two colleagues said it was only about 10 to 15 meters.
In his testimony, Unrau said he pulled Mary Rose away because he thought “there was no reason for her to go with them.”
“They told me they wanted to check her ID. I complied. I asked her to come out so that they could see her and her ID card. I gave them her ID card,” Unrau said.
“I had complied with everything they said, everything they asked of me,” he said.
Unrau added that he even offered to make an appointment with Immigration officers and bring along Mary Rose so that she could talk to them.
“I felt I was being more than accommodating…They were quite aggressive and they were trying to intimidate me, surrounding me from all sides,” he said, adding that one officer made an insulting gesture.
While admitting that he used “foul” language and that he “brushed aside” the hand of one of the officers, Unrau denied pushing another officer on his chest.
“I did not use my hands to push officer Tang,” Unrau said, adding that he knelt down and offered his hands after Ho said they were arresting him.