A survey by a group of Hong Kong residents in the UK found that nearly 90% of the 315 people interviewed plan to apply for a British Overseas Passport (BNO) visa, and nearly half of them intend to move to the UK as soon as possible. People are worried that the Hong Kong national security law endangers personal safety, and that Hong Kong society is not the same as before.
According to Deutsche Welle on December 11, this is the first time after the British government announced the Hong Kong BNO visa, an organization for the new plan for Hong Kong people to move to the United Kingdom will survey. The British government will launch the Hong Kong British National (Overseas) Passport (BNO) visa next month, allowing about 5.4 million eligible BNO holders and their immediate family members to apply, can settle in the UK for five years, and then pave the way for naturalization.
The British Overseas Chinese Association, founded by former British Consulate in Hong Kong staff Cheng Man-kit, interviewed 315 Hong Kong people between September and October this year in the form of questionnaires. Nearly 60% of the respondents were aged between 24 and 40, most of whom had tertiary education and were working, mainly in finance, business and information technology, with more than half earning a monthly income higher than the median income in Hong Kong, i.e. HK$18,200.
Respondents who intend to move to the UK are most concerned about the difficulty of finding accommodation in the UK, the high cost of living and the difficulty of finding a job. Ninety percent were also worried that their personal safety would still be threatened after moving to the UK, fearing that the Chinese or Hong Kong authorities would harm the interests of Hong Kong people moving to the UK as BNOs, or that they would be infiltrated and monitored by secret agents of the Chinese Communist Party. They also oppose the possibility of retired Hong Kong police officers holding BNO status to move to the UK.
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