New Briefing: The Case for an International Lifeboat Campaign
After weeks of talks with stakeholders in the UK, EU, USA, Canada, and other international stakeholders, Hong Kong Watch is proud today to formally launch its campaign for an International Lifeboat Campaign.
In this new briefing report, Hong Kong Watch makes the case for the need of an International Lifeboat Campaign to provide an essential refuge to Hong Kongers as a last resort in the event of a further crackdown in the city and part of a wider-set of measures designed to stand up for Hong Kong as the National Security law fundamentally compromises one-country, two-systems.
The new national security legislation will leave thousands of young, liberally minded people in Hong Kong vulnerable to prosecution under the same charges that confined the Nobel Peace prize winner Liu Xiabo to more than a decade in prison. This is why the UK's decision to extend the scope of BNO passports should be welcomed, but the British government must not stand alone.
Hong Kong Watch is calling on democratic partners who have already expressed concern about the National Security Law and issued statements of support for Hong Kong’s autonomy to:
Reform work and study visa programs to make it easier for Hong Kongers to work and study abroad as a pathway to citizenship.
Reform asylum policy to make it easier for Hong Kongers in need of a lifeline to claim asylum.
Coordinate with international partners preferably through an international Contact Group to ensure that no group of Hong Kongers is unfairly left behind by filling gaps in pre-existing immigration policies.
This could be done either by a national government changing the current immigration regulation or through direct legislation. There have so far been calls in the USA, Japan, Australia, Canada, the EU, and Taiwan for their respective governments to support an international lifeboat campaign.
There is a precedent for this kind of international initiative. In 1976 the UK, Canada, Kenya, and India offered refuge to Ugandans exiled by Idi Amin. From 1986-1997 more than 40 countries participated in the Orderly Departure Program, which resettled 623,000 Vietnamese refugees fleeing Communism. Responding to the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989, the Australian Government unilaterally issued 42,000 permanent visas to Chinese students. In the late 1990s a coalition of 28 international partners offered asylum to over 96,000 Kosovans fleeing conflict. More recently international partners co-ordinated a response to the Syrian Civil War, collectively resettling at least 6.7 million Syrians.
Read the full briefing here.