Asylum seekers from left, Vanessa Mae Rodel and daughter Keana, Nadeeka Dilrukshi Nonis and her son Dinath stand during a press conference outside the building of Hong Kong's immigration department in Hong Kong, Monday, May 15, 2017. A woman who helped shelter former CIA whistleblower Edward Snowden when he fled to Hong Kong is coming with her daughter to Canada after being granted refugee status. Their lawyer Robert Tibbo said in a statement Monday that Vanessa Rodel and her daughter Keana will arrive in Toronto tonight following Canada's acceptance of their 2016 refugee application.

Image Credit: THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP, Vincent Yu

A woman who escaped violence and human trafficking and helped shelter former CIA whistleblower Edward Snowden when he fled to Hong Kong is coming with her daughter to Canada after being granted refugee status, her lawyer said Monday.

Vanessa Rodel and her seven-year-old daughter Keana were scheduled to arrive in Toronto on Monday before travelling to Montreal, where they will settle in an apartment provided for them by a non-profit group that filed her 2016 asylum application.

Her lawyer, Robert Tibbo, said Rodel's arrival in Canada is the "first victory" in a saga that began in 2013. Rodel was part of a group that became known as Snowden's "Guardian Angels." They helped the fugitive at Tibbo's request in 2013, when the whistleblower fled the United States to Hong Kong after leaking classified information about the U.S. National Security Administration.

Five other people in the "Angels" group represented by Tibbo — three adults and two children — remain in Hong Kong. They fled Sri Lanka years ago, and their applications for asylum in Hong Kong have been rejected.

Snowden’s leaks revealed to the world the global reach of the vast surveillance network of the United States and its allies. Snowden, who is still represented by Tibbo, is now in Moscow and is wanted in the United States on charges related to the leaks. The seven "Angels" gained notoriety in 2016 when their existence was revealed in Oliver Stone’s film "Snowden," and Tibbo said they have since faced political persecution in Hong Kong.

Tibbo, originally from Montreal, and three Montreal-based lawyers set up a group to raise money for his clients who helped shelter the political fugitive. They filed asylum applications on their behalf, and collected about $350,000 for their expenses in Hong Kong and in Canada, should they all arrive in the city as privately sponsored refugees.

Tibbo called on the Canadian government to do more to help the remaining five come to Canada.

Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland was asked about the case Monday in Washington, where she was meeting with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer. She told reporters she could not comment on privately sponsored refugee applications.

"For the private refugees, it's a quasi-judicial process — it's not a political process," she said. "And we can't comment on personal cases."

Tibbo said Rodel and her daughter's asylum applications were "clear-cut ... There really wasn't a debate there. And for the other families, all I can say is that their cases aren't decided yet."

Tibbo said Rodel fled gender-based persecution and human trafficking in the Philippines before she fled to Hong Kong. She and her daughter were accepted by Canada as refugees in January 2019. Her legal team kept their status secret until Monday. "We wanted to make sure the wheels of the plane lifted off the ground," Tibbo said.

The other asylum seekers are a couple from Sri Lanka named Supun Kellapatha and Nadeeka Paththini, and their two young children. The fifth is Ajit Kumara, a Sri Lankan soldier who deserted the military.

Aside from the individual reasons they fled Sri Lanka and the Philippines, Tibbo said all of the so-called angels "have a separate refugee claim based on political opinion, stemming from their association and their assistance to Mr. Snowden in 2013."

Snowden tweeted about Rodel and her daughter on Monday. "Thank you to all those in Canada and around the world who have made this possible," he wrote in French. "After so many years, the first of the families who helped me is free and has a future. But the work is not over — with solidarity and compassion, Canada can save them all."

Tibbo said Snowden remains in Moscow after being charged with three counts of theft of data under the U.S. Espionage Act.

News from © The Canadian Press, 2019