Exiled Hong Kong protesters face fresh challenges in their new “home”
It’s been more than a year since the anti-extradition bill protest broke out in Hong Kong, and since last summer, some Hong Kong protesters have been forced into exile after Hong Kong authorities charged them with “riot,” which carries a 10-year prison sentence. Some of them hope to seek political asylum in western countries, but in order for their asylum applications to be approved, they need sufficient evidence to prove that they are facing systematic persecution in Hong Kong. This adds another layer of challenge to their life in exile, and also creates more uncertainty for their future.
Terry is in his early 20s, and last summer, he was participating in the biggest social movement in Hong Kong’s history. He was one of the thousands of frontline protesters in the anti-extradition bill protest that shake the city to its core. But one year on, he is living an exiled life in Canada. In the interview, he recalled all the protests that he had taken part in last year, from the occupation of the legislative council on July 1, 2019 to the fierce clash with police inside college campuses.
At the end of last year, Terry was arrested for participating in the protest, and he was subsequently charged with “rioting,” which forced him to leave Hong Kong. “I don’t think there is still fair trial in Hong Kong, because the judicial system is made up mostly by people from the government,” Terry said. “The police could pretend to be an eyewitness to smear defendants, and I simply don’t think the protest was a riot.”
One year after the protest broke out, Hong Kong government has arrested more than 9000 people and charged close to 600 of them with rioting, the highest number in Hong Kong’s history. “Riot” is a law that dated back to the British colonial era, and once defendants are found guilty of the crime, they could spend up to 10 years in prison.
The first defendant to be charged with “riot” in the anti-extradition bill protest threw helmets and umbrellas at the police during the protest on June 12. Even though he pleaded guilty in court, he was still given a four-year prison sentence.
Comparing to similar cases in the past, Terry thinks that the Hong Kong government has lowered the threshold for individuals to be charged with riot. He suspects that the government is motivated by its political agenda to charge a large group of protesters with riot.
Terry fled Hong Kong before his first trial, and he is now wanted by the Hong Kong government. He applied for political asylum once he arrived in Canada, and his application is currently pending review.
According to him, Taiwan and Canada were his top two destinations after he decided to go into exile. However, he ultimately decided to go with Canada because the country has a refugee law in place, which convinced him that the chances of his asylum application being approved by Canadian authorities is higher. With government subsidies for asylum seekers and his personal savings, Terry thinks he should be able to satisfy his basic needs in life. However, the endless process of waiting still makes him feel uneasy.
A challenging application process
According to Richard Kurland, an experienced immigration lawyer in Canada, Hong Kong people need to prove that they have a reasonable fear of persecution when they apply for political asylum in Canada. However, the current situation in Hong Kong may not be strong enough to constitute a strong asylum case in the eyes of Canadian immigration authority.
“There has not been a Tiananmen equivalent in Hong Kong,” Kurland explained. “Back in 1989, I was doing refugee claims for people from China, and after the Tiananmen incident, the claim to refugee status was straightforward. So who in Hong Kong today may have a reasonable case? It’s a very short list of people.”
Kurland points out that while there is a potential that situation in Hong Kong could deteriorate rapidly once the National Security Law comes into effect, but he thinks it is a bit premature to predict Hong Kong people can easily apply for political asylum in Canada when the content of the law remains unclear. “It’s certainly not enough to say ‘I’m from Hong Kong therefore I’m a refugee,’” Kurland explained.
Julian Ku, an expert on international law at Hofstra University, said even though the Refugee Convention mandates clear standards for granting political asylum, countries usually implement these standards based on their domestic laws and not all countries define the various terms in exactly the same way.
“Whether Hong Kong people would qualify for political asylum depends on how each state receiving their application analyzes the facts on the ground in HK and whether the particular refugee can prove they have a ‘well founded’ fear of persecution due to their political opinion,” Ku said. “Historically, just having a bad legal system is not enough. Each applicant would have to show something specific about their situation and evidence that the Hong Kong government had adopted measures that would apply to them in particular. That is usually a pretty tough case to make.”
Despite these underlying challenges, Terry and other exiled Hong Kong protesters think that once the national security law comes into effect, it will increase the chances of their asylum applications being approved. “Since no Hong Kong people have ever applied for political asylum in Canada successfully, I used to think the chances of my application being approved could be pretty slim,” Terry said. “But once the national security law is enforced in Hong Kong, it could increase the possibility of my case being approved.”
According to information that is publicly available, the national security law lists secession, subversion against the Chinese government, terrorist activities and collusion with foreign forces as the four main criminal offenses. However, what constitutes these offenses remain unclear, and despite government’s repeated reassurance that the law is created to target loopholes in Hong Kong’s national security, many Hong Kong residents and foreign governments worry the freedom and civil rights that people in Hong Kong have long enjoyed will be destroyed.
Government statistics in Canada shows that there are more than 40 Hong Kong protesters in the country, making Canada the most popular destination for exiled Hong Kong protesters apart from Taiwan. Terry hopes after the UK and the US expressed their opposition to the national security law, other countries will also adjust their asylum seeking standards for Hong Kong people accordingly.
The endless waiting
Terry has always been interested in politics, and he began to participate in social movement since 2012. Even though he had thought about living abroad on his own, he never thought he would buy a one-way ticket when he actually decided to go abroad. While he is waiting for the hearing of his asylum application, he knows he needs to collect more evidence to prove that he will face political persecution if he returns to Hong Kong.
“I often dreamed about the police knocking on the door of my house in Hong Kong, and now I need to take sleeping pills in order to fall asleep,” Terry said. “My family members also worry that they will be targeted by the police because of me.”
Richard Kurland thinks that for most exiled Hong Kong protesters in Canada, the easiest way for them to secure long-term visa in Canada is to enter the education stream. “College and universities will have you and that allows you to stay in Canada for a considerable period and give you access to a post-graduate permit, which is on the path to permanent residence,” said Kurland. “It’s a multi-year path to permanent residence in Canada.”
However, Kurland said the Canadian government and other members of the Five Eyes Alliance are paying a lot of attention to the situation in Hong Kong. With its extensive experiences in handling urgent mass migration from all over the world, Kurland thinks Canada will be the most ideal destination for Hong Kong people if situation in the city continues to deteriorate.
“If things go really bad in Hong Kong while they are in Canada, the chances are that Canada will come up with a special measures program,” Kurland predicted.
However, Julian Ku from Hofstra University also pointed out that even though Hong Kong people might be more sympathetically welcomed in most countries, they still need to be aware of the anti-immigration sentiments in some countries. “I think the larger problem Hong Kong people should be aware of is potential domestic opposition to accepting refugees from anywhere,” Ku said. “There is still a fair amount of domestic opposition to widespread new immigration in the US, no matter how sympathetic or deserving they are.”
Apart from having to collect more evidence to back up his asylum application, the COVID19 pandemic has also delayed the process of reviewing asylum cases in Canada. Terry predicts that he will need to wait for more than a year until there is a result for his asylum application.
Before then, there is no way back for Terry. “Life in exile can be very hard, and I only realized how wonderful Hong Kong is once I left the city,” said Terry. “I can never replace my feeling towards Hong Kong with my feeling for another place. I still believe and hope that Hong Kong can bounce back from the current situation, and I believe we will win one day.”
The article is first published in Mandarin on DW’s Chinese website.
