Disillusioned Hong Kongers press UK for escape route

With Hong Kong increasingly polarised on political reforms and fears growing over the influence of Beijing, frustrated residents are pressing former colonial power Britain to offer them an escape route. Their push for a new status that would allow them right of abode in Britain reflects their anger over what they see as a lack of support from the UK in their time of need. Before Britain gave the city back to China in 1997 it offered Hong Kongers a special “British National Overseas” (BNO) status to calm those worried about their future under Beijing’s rule. Holders can enter the UK without a visa and get consular assistance abroad, but have no right to live in Britain.

It is an extra option for Hong Kong people - it’s a right they deserve. I was born British. It should not relate to my ethnicity.

Sampson Noble, a 30-year-old Hong Kong Chinese resident who runs the BritishHongKong campaign group

Around 400,000 Hong Kong residents hold the BNO passport, and some are now calling on Britain to allow them residency as they seek to escape rising tensions. The development follows more than two months of pro-democracy protests, which failed to win concessions from the government on the way the city’s next leader is elected, and ties in with concerns that civil liberties are being chipped away. The group’s forum has 3,000 members and has sent letters to British lawmakers, as well as a statement to a UK parliamentary inquiry into Hong Kong’s post-handover relationship with Britain. In that statement the group called Britain’s stance “discriminative”.

We were ruled for 156 years and we are being discriminated against. There is a feeling of being betrayed.

Humphrey Lau, a campaigner for the group

Asia-Pacific