The Refugee & Human Trafficking Clinic serves unmet legal needs in the community while providing a unique opportunity for students interested in international human rights and refugee law to gain knowledge and experience outside of a textbook. Students in the Refugee & Human Trafficking Clinic assist with legal casework for victims of trauma – asylum seekers, refugees, victims of forced labour, forced marriages, trafficking, and sexual exploitation. 

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We work with the Hong Kong Dignity Institute in their mission to restore dignity to the most vulnerable in Hong Kong and to dismantle the systems of exploitation that perpetuate these abuses.  For vulnerable migrant populations in Hong Kong, the lack of an integrated service approach means that clients often receive conflicting or isolated advice from professionals in different disciplines, limiting the effectiveness of solutions and potentially causing re-traumatization. We address this risk by serving clients through an integrated approach: combining legal, mental health and social work approaches to client management.

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The Clinic encourages students to

• serve the greater Hong Kong community;

• see legal practice as socially situated;

• reflect on the nature of the lawyer’s relationship with a client including issues of power and trust; and

• evaluate ethical conduct in a practical context.

Students have the opportunity to recognize challenges, creatively identify options and solutions, execute their own judgment, and understand the impacts of their decisions.