The British newspaper The Times reported on Thursday (18) that since the British government opened the British National (Overseas) Passport (BNO) holders to apply for residence visas at the end of January, nearly 5,000 Hong Kong people have applied and about half of them have arrived in the UK. The report also quoted the last governor of Hong Kong, Chris Patten, as saying that he believed that a large number of Hong Kong talents would be welcomed after arriving in the UK and that immigrant Hong Kong people would make a great contribution to the UK.
The report quoted government sources as saying that, due to the Chinese Communist Party‘s imposition of the “Hong Kong National Security Law”, many Hong Kong people have gone to the UK to escape the clutches of the Chinese regime. The report also said that the British authorities, as soon as the Chinese government had issued the BNO visa, had not been able to provide the visa. The report also said that the British authorities have long expected that there will be a lot of people who have already prepared documents to apply immediately, after this round of peak application period, the increase in applications will slow down.
The report also quoted Peter William Walsh, head of the Migration Observatory, a research institute at Oxford University, as pointing out that there are many Hong Kong people moving to the UK, and according to the current rate, it is estimated that there will be 145,000 Hong Kong people arriving at the end of the year. Hong Kong people arrived in the United Kingdom.
The British Home Office previously said that 350,000 people in Hong Kong have valid BNO passports, another 2.5 million Hong Kong people have BNO status, and 2.5 million Hong Kong people’s families, that is, a total of 5.4 million people can go to Britain through the relevant programs. The authorities estimate that 300,000 people will move to the UK in the first five years.
The Times also interviewed Chris Patten, the last Governor of Hong Kong. He said that the British authorities are responsible for the past by launching the lifeboat scheme, and he believes that 5,000 Hong Kong people have applied for visas to live in the UK in a short period of Time, which reflects the concern of Hong Kong people about the deprivation of freedom.
However, another concerned about immigration groups “Migration Watch” (Migration Watch) Chairman Mehmet (Alp Mehmet) is of the view that the current Epidemic in the United Kingdom is severe, job opportunities and public services are tense, a large number of Hong Kong people migrate to the United Kingdom at this time, will constitute a certain pressure, that the government allows The government’s measure of allowing a large number of Hong Kong people to go to Britain is not reasonable.
After the British government allowed BNO holders to apply for residence visas at the end of January, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the SAR government said respectively that they did not recognize BNO as a valid travel document and proof of identity, but the British government indicated that the BNO visa program would continue, and Hong Kong people could stay in the UK for five years after applying for a visa, during which they could work or study; after the visa expired, they could apply for settlement for another year, and after being approved, they could After the expiry of the visa, they can apply for settlement for one year and then become British citizens. The whole scheme is referred to as the “5 plus 1 scheme”.
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