MFA offers assistance to Singapore ‘McRefugee’ in Hong Kong
The Singapore Consulate-General in Hong Kong has located and offered assistance to Mary Seow, the Singapore “McRefugee” who was interviewed in an Associated Press story on working poor and homeless people spending their nights in McDonald’s outlets in the territory.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is also in touch with her family in Singapore, a MFA spokesman said on Saturday (14 November).
Seow’s plight was highlighted after another woman, a 56-year-old identified by Hong Kong police by her surname Lai, died in one outlet and went unnoticed until the next morning.
According to the AP, Seow said she had been swindled by mainland Chinese “friends” she met in a Singapore church.
The 60-year-old widow sold her house and followed them to China to invest the money, which she claimed was depleted in five years.
She began sleeping in a McDonald’s outlet a few weeks ago and had been previously spent her nights in a park.
Seow said she was not ready to return to Singapore because she did not want to “lose face” with friends. She has been living off meagre savings and working as a “parallel trader” who brings goods from Hong Kong across the border to mainland China.
The MFA urges Singaporeans in need of consular assistance overseas to approach the nearest Singapore Embassy or Consulate-General for assistance, or to call the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' 24-hour Duty Office hotline at + 65 6379 8800.
