No shelter for ‘McRefugees’ amid coronavirus horror: is something wrong with Hong Kong if closure of fast-food outlets means homeless have nowhere to go?
- For a time, hundreds sleeping at 24-hour McDonald’s joints considered them safe havens, but social distancing laws mean restaurant has closed dinner dine-in services
- As unemployment looms with city in throes of an economic rut, NGOs warn more may join street sleepers and situation will worsen
The golden arches of McDonald’s have long represented more than a fast-food restaurant to Hong Kong’s homeless.
Hundreds of people who sleep overnight at the chain’s 24-hour branches, or “McRefugees” as they are known, have been forced onto the streets after the restaurant decided to close its dinner dine-in services for a fortnight from April 1 to curb the spread of the dreaded coronavirus.
Lily wears a black baseball cap and lilac waterproof jacket. Her mask keeps falling down as she talks. It looks like it is more than a few days old. She says she uses the fast-food chain nearly every day, as she has nowhere else to go.
“I sit there and sleep,” she tells the Post.
Lily, in her mid-60s, is one of about 400 McRefugees who now have to find somewhere else for a night’s rest as McDonald’s in Hong Kong has suspended its dine-in services from 6pm to 4am at all its 244 outlets until April 14.
She says she now ducks into doorways when it rains, and sleeps in a park.