"Only 5 applications were approved in 5 years, and the number of Hong Kong people applying for asylum has dropped significantly"
2024-08-14
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After the implementation of the Hong Kong National Security Law in 2020, some Hong Kong rioters fled for fear of crime, and some thugs who knew they might violate the law also sought various ways to apply for "asylum" and emigrate to foreign countries.
However, official data recently disclosed by the Hong Kong "South China Morning Post" on August 14 showed that the approval rate of Australia and the United Kingdom for Hong Kong people's so-called asylum applications was very low, and the number of related applications has also begun to decline since the middle of last year, falling to the level before the "Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill Movement" in 2019.
According to the latest data from the Australian Department of Home Affairs, Australia received 584 protection visa applications from Hong Kong residents from 2019 to April 2024, but only five applications were approved during the same period. From 2019 to the first quarter of 2024, the UK Home Office received 332 asylum applications from Hong Kong residents, and about 75 applications were approved during the same period. Some applications from both countries came from minors (66 from Australia and 18 from the UK).
Hong Kong groups in Australia said that all approved applications were submitted before 2019, and that no Hong Kong asylum seekers have been interviewed by the Immigration Department, let alone obtained any protection visa.
The report also noted that in terms of the number of applications per month, the month with the most applications for Australian protection visas submitted by Hong Kong residents was July 2020, one month after the implementation of the Hong Kong National Security Law, with 34 applications that month. The peak number of asylum applications received by the UK from Hong Kong residents occurred in the third quarter of 2020. However, the number of applications from asylum seekers in these two countries has dropped sharply since the middle of last year.
According to reports, in the UK, starting from the second quarter of last year, the Home Office received less than 10 asylum applications from Hong Kong residents every quarter. In Australia, from April last year to April this year, the Home Office received less than 5 applications in most months (10 months). The report said that this means that the number of applications has dropped back to the level before the Hong Kong "Amendment Storm" broke out in 2019.
The South China Morning Post did not attempt to discuss the reasons for the above changes, and reminded that it was impossible to determine when the above approved applications were submitted, but mentioned that according to data provided by the Australian Department of Home Affairs, the average processing time for Hong Kong people's asylum applications has risen sharply in the past few years, from 198 days in 2018-2019 to 1,340 days in 2023-2024 (as of April), or three years and eight months. During this period, 54 applications were rejected and 61 applications were withdrawn.
The Australian Hong Kong group "Australia Hong Kong Alliance" claims that it has been helping Hong Kong people "in need" apply for political asylum for many years. Its chairman Jane Poon told the South China Morning Post that as far as she and some immigration lawyers know, the applications approved in recent years were all submitted before 2019. Among the applications related to the "Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill Movement", no one has been interviewed by the Immigration Department for their asylum applications, let alone obtained any protection visas.
"The Australian government takes a very long time to process applications, and most people even have to wait four to five years. This uncertainty puts a lot of pressure on applicants' daily lives, especially affecting their mental health." Pan Lizhen admitted that although asylum seekers can still work and enjoy medical benefits in Australia, she does not encourage people to apply for asylum because applicants will "undergo tremendous pressure" during the long wait and the results of the application are difficult to predict.
The Australian Department of Home Affairs requires that applicants for protection visas must prove that they have "good reason" to fear that they may be "persecuted" and therefore cannot or are unwilling to return to their country of origin. In relevant documents, it emphasizes that the relevant harm must be personal rather than indirect, such as threats to life or freedom, and severe economic difficulties that threaten survival. The UK also has similar regulations, that is, applicants must show the existence of a "real risk" of persecution, or at least prove the possibility of it within a certain "reasonable degree".
The British newspaper The Guardian reported in December last year that a number of Hong Kong rioters who had been arrested complained that the British Home Office rejected their political asylum applications for various "absurd" reasons, including that the applicants were still able to obtain passports to travel to the UK, which proved that they were not "really in danger" in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong media previously pointed out that the political asylum application process in the UK is cumbersome, including multiple interviews. In addition, the number of refugees from Syria and Ukraine has increased in recent years, and calls for reducing immigration have increased in the UK, which has only made the waiting time longer. In addition, the UK has rejected or delayed asylum applications for various reasons, and many applicants have been rejected after waiting for two or three years.
According to a BBC report in September last year, citing statistics from the UK Home Office, there have been 299 cases of Hong Kong people seeking so-called political asylum in the UK since the beginning of 2020, including 44 minors. During the same period, the UK Home Office granted only 28 refugee or humanitarian protection status to Hong Kong people and rejected 43 applications, with an approval rate of less than 10%.
In addition, the United States has also been exposed to have repeatedly rejected asylum applications from Hong Kong rioters. The South China Morning Post published an article in 2020 revealing that four Hong Kong rioters, including Zeng Zhijian, who were charged with rioting and assaulting police officers, went to the U.S. Consulate General in Hong Kong and Macau in October of that year to seek asylum, but were "driven out" by the other side. In 2023, two former U.S. media reporters in Hong Kong said in their new book that Hong Kong rioter Joshua Wong, who is currently serving a sentence, had personally begged for "asylum" from the United States, but was rejected in person.
It is reported that on the day when the Hong Kong National Security Law was passed, Joshua Wong went to St. John's Building to meet with American diplomats, and at the end of the meeting he claimed that he did not want to leave and hoped to enter the U.S. Consulate General in Hong Kong on Garden Road, Hong Kong Island. However, because U.S. law prohibits applying for political asylum outside the mainland, the U.S. diplomats did not agree and only allowed him to stay in the office of St. John's Building, where he did not enjoy consular protection.
Source | Observer.com
