‘Grieving and exhausted’: Hong Kong fire victims call for centralised relief platform

Victims of Hong Kong’s worst fire in decades have called for a unified platform to access funds and resources, as some elderly people say they feel “exhausted” having to travel around and repeatedly provide their personal information to different parties for support. Several people who lost their homes in the Tai Po fire, which had claimed 156 lives as of Tuesday, said that while retrieving new identity cards and other documents from the Immigration Department was a smooth process, they faced difficulties navigating funds and other forms of support spread across various locations. The department said on Monday that the first batch of 70 identity cards, more than 300 travel documents and certificates, as well as 112 travel permits and other papers issued by mainland Chinese authorities were available for collection at five locations from 1pm to 9pm. David Wong, a 73-year-old retiree, arrived at the Church of Christ in China Fung Leung Kit Memorial Secondary School – formerly a shelter and now a service centre – to collect his new identity documents. He was among 330 residents who took a designated shuttle bus to immigration headquarters in Tseung Kwan O on Saturday, after they had filled in their details earlier at nine shelters in Tai Po. “I really appreciate their beyond-five-star service, which made the process of getting our new identity card and travel documents very smooth,” said Wong, who hoped such one-stop services could be expanded to other forms of resource distribution, such as cash funds. “At least 50 to 60 per cent of the estate’s residents are elderly. We spent several days going around to seek support, while some of us are still recovering from the grief of losing family members.” He said he had to queue for hours to receive several thousand Hong Kong dollars from different non-profit organisations, which he “very much appreciated”, but felt could have been better coordinated to save them some effort. He was on his way back from a nearby cafe when he saw the fire break out on Wednesday afternoon with only HK$200 (US$26) cash in his pocket. He said the cash fund “was crucial” as tried to figure out his accommodation plans. He broke down in tears as he recalled the moment when he saw his family’s home – two flats accommodating his children and grandchildren – go up in flames The department said its headquarters in Tseung Kwan O would arrange special service hours for affected residents, from 6pm to 10pm Monday to Friday and 1pm to 10pm on Saturday, to help them obtain new identity cards and other documents, as well as extend their stays in Hong Kong. Those who had not registered their information could also visit any of the department’s offices during service hours. The department will also continue to arrange special transport at the two temporary shelter centres that are still open, to take affected residents to its headquarters and the China Travel Service centre to process relevant applications. Many other affected residents, especially the elderly, also agreed that there should be a one-stop platform to avoid the trouble of filling out similar forms to get support and to save time for organisations screening duplicate applications. “It will be much more convenient for us if the resources could be distributed uniformly,” said two sisters who lived in different estate buildings, Wong Kit-Mei, 73, and Wong Siu-mei, 63. “To be honest, sometimes I waited in a line and I did not remember if I had applied for the same fund before. But the staff told me to fill in the form anyway and they would check later in the system,” the younger sister said. A saleswoman, 40, who lived on the estate with her daughter, said: “Now all the information is scattered in different places and we have to spend a lot of time searching and filling applications in one by one.” The woman, surnamed Siu, said it was “very tiring and challenging” as she needed to take care of her child because school classes were suspended, while figuring out their next step. She had no income for several days because she had no time to go back to work. Steve Chow, whose 80-year-old mother lived on the estate, had two large sheets printed out with the available resources, including dozens of phone numbers and addresses from the service centre. He planned to call some numbers to find out what aid his mother was eligible for. “I’ve been rushing around these past few days trying to sort out arrangements for my mother, who is too old to walk far,” Chow said. “I appreciate that many organisations are willing to help, but it is a pain to navigate.” He said he was contacted by a social worker and that he felt it would save some effort if they helped register his mother’s personal information to get support.

‘Grieving and exhausted’: Hong Kong fire victims call for centralised relief platform

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}‘Now all the information is here and there and we have to spend a lot of time searching and filling it in one by one,’ a survivor says

‘Now all the information is here and there and we have to spend a lot of time searching and filling it in one by one,’ a survivor says