More needs to be done to find refugees a home in Hong Kong
- The Hong Kong government should step up ongoing efforts to streamline the application process to quickly work out who is a refugee and who is not. Rights must be respected and justice done
Asylum seekers arriving in Hong Kong face a long and difficult path in their pursuit of refugee status. Only 1.2 per cent have succeeded with claims since a new screening mechanism was introduced nine years ago.
But even those who succeed face a further ordeal. Those claimants, who would face torture or persecution if returned home, cannot be resettled in the city. Instead, their future lies in a third country. Most face a long wait and might be left in limbo for a decade or two. Some die before being resettled.
This is part of a global problem. There are too many refugees needing resettlement around the world and too few countries offering them a home. The process takes a long time.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported that in 2021 there were 1.4 million in need of settlement. Only 57,500, a little more than 4 per cent, found countries who would take them. Since then, the war in Ukraine has made the situation worse. But even before that conflict, the number of forcibly displaced people in the world was growing and outpacing measures adopted to find them places of safety.
Ways must be found to speed up the finding of new homes for refugees. Various pathways have been developed, including schemes permitting migration for family reunion, work, education or humanitarian reasons. Private sponsorship can sometimes help.
Anyone tempted to seek refugee status in Hong Kong should not see it as a soft option. Those who succeed are permitted to work while waiting to be resettled. But they often have to depend on government subsidies of a few thousand dollars a month. Employers should be encouraged to give refugees an opportunity to work while they wait.
The government, meanwhile, should further step up ongoing efforts to streamline the application process in the city to quickly work out who is a refugee and who is not. Rights must be respected and justice done.
One successful claimant told the Post people like him are seen as a burden, but: “No one wants to be a refugee.” As the world grapples with humanitarian crises, more must be done to ensure refugees are quickly able to find a home.
