LONDON (Reuters) – Nearly 5,000 Hong Kong citizens have applied to live, work and study in the UK under a new visa scheme that paves the way for British citizenship for people fleeing China’s oppression in the former colony, reports The Times.
London has changed its visa rules to give millions of Hong Kong residents the chance to settle in Britain after China introduced a new security law that, according to democracy activists, would end the freedoms promised to the area in 1997.
Under the rules, Hong Kong residents holding a British National Overseas (BNO) passport are allowed to live in the UK for five years and then apply for ‘established status’ and citizenship.
About half of the 5,000 applications received were from Hong Kongers who were already in Britain, The Times reported, citing unknown sources.
Some 5.4 million Hong Kongers may eventually be eligible for British citizenship under the scheme.
The people have already been temporarily accommodated in the UK after fleeing China’s security action while waiting for the visa change.
The UK Home Office declined to comment on the leak. A spokesman said the data would be published in the coming months.
Britain and China have been battling for months over what London and Washington say is an attempt to silence differences in Hong Kong following protests against democracy in 2019 and 2020.
The British flag was lowered over Hong Kong when the colony was handed over to China in 1997 after more than 150 years of British rule – imposed after Britain defeated China in the First Opium War.
Hong Kong’s autonomy was guaranteed under the “one country, two systems” agreement signed in the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration by then-Chinese Prime Minister Zhao Ziyang and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
China says Britain’s view of Hong Kong is being clouded by an imperial hangover and that the region needs national security legislation to counter harmful unrest.
China and Hong Kong have said they will no longer recognize the BNO passport as a valid travel document from 31 January. BNO status was created by Britain in 1987, specifically for Hong Kong residents.
The British government has predicted that the new visa could attract more than 300,000 people and their dependents to Britain. Beijing said it would be from their second-class citizens.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru and Paul Sandle in London; Edited by Guy Faulconbridge and Angus MacSwan)