HONG KONG — A Sri Lankan family that sheltered the former National Security Agency contractor Edward J. Snowden after he fled to Hong Kong in 2013 has been given asylum in Canada, an aid group supporting the family said Tuesday.
Supun Thilina Kellapatha and Nadeeka Dilrukshi Nonis landed in Toronto on Tuesday with their children, Sethumdi and Dinath. They planned to travel on to Montreal and settle there as permanent residents.
“This is the best news I’ve heard in a long, long time,” Mr. Snowden tweeted.
The move ends a long period of uncertainty for the family, who had sought asylum in Hong Kong but were denied it in 2017. Mr. Kellapatha had said he was tortured in Sri Lanka.
“After over a decade in limbo, they can now begin to build new lives in Canada, reunited with the rest of their family and free of the constant fear and worry that marked their existence as high-profile asylum seekers in Hong Kong,” Marc-André Séguin, the president of the aid group For the Refugees, said in a statement.