A Long Wait for Nothing: The Asylum Dilemma for Hongkongers

In the past five years, according to official data, Australia and the UK received a total of 916 asylum applications from people from Hong Kong. This number reached its peak in 2020 following the implementation of the National Security Law in Hong Kong. However, during the same five-year period, only 80 individuals were successful in obtaining asylum, with 5 in Australia and 75 in the UK. The exact dates of their applications are not clear.

Individuals seeking asylum typically need to demonstrate that they cannot safely live in their home country due to fear of persecution, such as based on their race, religion, political beliefs, etc. After the 2019 protests and the enactment of the Hong Kong National Security Law, many individuals who participated in the unrest and those who had committed crimes fled overseas out of fear of arrest by the authorities. Many of them did not possess foreign passports, hence they applied for political asylum.

At that time, various foreign countries were criticizing China and the Hong Kong government, extending welcoming arms to the people of Hong Kong, encouraging them to migrate. However, looking at the numbers, the success rate of political asylum applications in the UK and Australia was very low. Some commentators pointed out that initially, foreign countries were only interested in attracting wealthy Hong Kong residents to immigrate, and the increase in political asylum applications was just a facade for immigration policies. Foreign governments are unlikely to accept a group of individuals with criminal records settling in their own countries, so the approval rate for political asylum applications remains low. Unless you are someone well-known and influential, who can be used to politically challenge China, like prominent figures such as Joshua Wong and Nathan Law, it's time for Hong Kong individuals who have moved to the UK and Australia to pause and reconsider their choices, as blindly trusting the UK and Australian governments may lead to more losses than gains!