US intelligence whistleblower Edward Snowden sought shelter among Hong Kong refugees after he leaked a huge trove of secret documents in the southern Chinese city, reports said on Wednesday.
The former intelligence contractor had quit his job with the National Security Agency and traveled to Hong Kong in May 2013 where he initiated one of the largest data leaks in US history, fueling a firestorm over the issue of mass surveillance.
Although Snowden stayed in an upscale hotel before the leak, little was known of his situation afterward.
But a report Wednesday revealed he had been given shelter by the city’s 11,000 asylum-seekers.
Many of Hong Kong’s refugees are forced to live in slum-like conditions, the last place anyone would look for one of the highest-profile US fugitives.
The 33-year-old stayed with at least four refugees, according to a New York Times report. It added they were all clients of lawyer Robert Tibbo, who helped hide Snowden.
“It was clear that if Mr. Snowden was placed with a refugee family, this was the last place the government and the majority of Hong Kong society would expect him to be,” Tibbo told the Times.
One Filipino woman with whom Snowden stayed, Vanessa Mae Bondalian Rodel, described him as “scared and very worried.”

Source: Arab News