The British government should further expand its lifeboat British National Overseas visa scheme for Hong Kongers fleeing a crackdown on dissent and slash their university tuition fees in recognition of the ongoing threat to the city's promised freedoms, a London-based rights group has told parliament.
"It is crucial that the U.K. Parliament and government continue to monitor and respond to the situation in Hong Kong following the March 2024 passage of the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, commonly known as 'Article 23' legislation, which furthers the threat posed by the 2020 National Security Law to the most basic rights and freedoms in the city," Hong Kong Watch said in a briefing aimed at the new Labour government.
Citing the ongoing threat of surveillance, harassment and violence by agents and supporters of the Chinese state, the group said the British government "has a distinct role to play in addressing the deterioration of rights and freedoms in Hong Kong, responding to the needs of BNO Hong Kongers living in the UK, and protecting BNO Hong Kongers from the threat of transnational repression."
It called on the government to further expand the British National Overseas, or BNO, lifeboat scheme for Hong Kongers that was announced by the previous government in January 2021, prompting China to de-recognize the BNO passport in protest.
The government relaxed the rules in April to allow people to apply for the scheme, which has seen more than 200,000 applicants to date, on arrival in the U.K.
But adults aged 27-45 are currently ineligible because they were children prior to the 1997 handover to Chinese rule, Hong Kong Watch said.
"Many Hong Kongers born between 1979 and 1997 ... are stuck in a loophole within the BNO policy: not old enough to have applied for BNO status prior to the handover, but not young enough to qualify under the November 2022 expansion," it said.
Hong Kong’s growing diaspora
By the first quarter of 2024, 210,843 Hong Kongers had applied for the visa scheme, making the U.K. home to the largest diaspora of Hong Kongers in the world, excluding mainland China, the group said.
The government should also change the status of Hong Kongers to allow them to pay the lower tuition rates offered to British nationals at the country's universities, Hong Kong Watch said.
BNO visa holders from Hong Kong face "substantial barriers" to higher education because they are forced to pay international tuition rates, it said.
British students currently have their annual university tuition fee capped at £9,250 (US$11,950), while international students can pay as much as £37,500 (US$48,500) a year.
Residents from almost all British overseas territories have been eligible to pay the lower rate since 2007, but Hong Kongers lost that status at the 1997 handover, and must now wait five years before they can sign up as a domestic student, delaying their integration and hampering their access to higher-paid jobs, according to Hong Kong Watch.
The Hong Kong Student Alliance estimates that between 1,500 and 2,000 Hong Kongers in the U.K. are eligible to enter higher education annually.
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High tuition fees
But prospective students told RFA Cantonese that the high tuition fees are prohibitive.
A Hong Kong secondary school student who gave only the pseudonym T for fear of reprisals said she is considering delaying university until she obtains permanent residency.
"We could afford tuition for two international students, but [my family] don't want to pay it because it's so much more expensive -- it's three times the cost," T said.
"If it's a matter of a gap of a couple of years, why pay three times the amount?"
Alliance spokesperson Clark Leung said he knows of several people who are thinking of going back to Hong Kong to study, despite the ongoing ideological crackdown across education institutions there.
"Our position ... will of course be to continue to fight to get the government to grant home fee status and maintenance loans," Leung said. "British Nationals Overseas are considered British, but we have to wait five years."
Meanwhile, Hong Kong Watch said the new Labor government must continue to take China's failure to maintain Hong Kong's promised freedoms seriously.
"This involves not only publicly and privately condemning China and Hong Kong’s egregious human rights violations in Hong Kong, but taking action by expanding safe haven for those who need to flee from political repression," Hong Kong Watch Chief Executive Officer Benedict Rogers said.
Rogers also called for sanctions on Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee, for measures to address the financial and transnational repression of Hong Kong "that is likely to increase under Article 23 legislation."
Translated by Luisetta Mudie.