Haven Assistance, an organization that arranges for Hong Kong people to escape political prosecution and seek asylum abroad, announced on its Facebook page (see photo) that the German government had granted asylum to a female student at the Chinese University of Hong Kong on October 14 and granted her refugee status for three years. This is the first case of political asylum granted by Germany to Hong Kong people since the anti-amendment movement in Hong Kong. The shelter’s statement also noted that the woman had been sexually assaulted by a staff member while at the camp, who has now been charged.
The 22-year-old woman showed Reuters a letter from the German Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) confirming her refugee status and expressing her gratitude to the German government.
She said she was arrested during a demonstration last November and traveled to Germany via Taiwan a few days later without telling her family. She was distraught and saddened that she would have to leave Hong Kong in this way and that she might never be able to return.
The CUHK girl was quoted by the Hong Kong Diaspora Shelter as saying that she had needed to be hospitalized because of emotional problems, but she thanked the German government for granting her asylum and said that the German government had provided most of her basic needs, such as food, clothing, housing, transportation and basic medical care, throughout the application process. She said that it would be a great support to the Hong Kong protesters if the German government could simplify the application process for refugees from Hong Kong and allow the applicants to choose their place of residence while waiting.
The shelter also thanked the German government for being the first European country to grant asylum to Hong Kong citizens involved in the anti-criminalization campaign. Sunny Post also urged the German government and EU countries to improve the refugee mechanism and consider a comprehensive lifeboat policy.
Sam Goodman, a senior policy advisor at the Hong Kong Monitor, was quoted as saying that the German government’s granting of asylum to the girl demonstrates its commitment to the protection of human rights and its belief that young people will face political persecution, arbitrary arrest and imprisonment if they remain in Hong Kong after the National Security Law comes into effect.
Goodman argued that the girl’s experience in the refugee camp reflects the need to reform refugee policy. He noted that almost three months after Germany and other EU countries agreed in July to make it easier for Hong Kong youth to stay in the EU to study and work as part of an international lifeboat policy, it is time for the German government to fulfill its promise. He recommended that the German government reform its asylum policy to provide special programs for Hong Kong people who have the opportunity to face political persecution, such as asylum applications, extended working holiday visas, etc. He believed that Germany should join forces with like-minded international partners to ensure that every Hong Kong person has a viable policy to protect them in the face of further repression.
The girl was quoted as saying that she had faced a lot of difficulties, including sexual abuse by camp staff, while waiting for her asylum application to be approved and living in a refugee camp for nearly 11 months.
Huang Tai Yang, who initiated the shelter, told Standpoint News that he refused to tell the details of the sexual assault on behalf of his client, but revealed that the incident happened in a refugee camp run by the German government earlier this year, and the girl reported the incident to the police and the German police also took action. The employee was later prosecuted and the case is scheduled to go to court.
Huang said he would not criticize the German government for this incident, but he believes it was an isolated incident in which the girl was unfortunate enough to run into an employee with bad intentions. However, he believes that the incident reflects that there is room for improvement in the German government’s procedures for handling Hong Kong refugees. He pointed out that most of the Hong Kong people can speak English and integrate into German society, so there is no problem in coping with the basic needs of life, so it is not necessary for Hong Kong people applying for refugee status to live in refugee camps.
He also pointed out that the fact that this is the first time that the German government has granted asylum to demonstrators in Hong Kong in the anti-refugee movement implies that the German government believes that demonstrators who oppose the sending of Chinese asylum have the right to asylum, that they have no access to a fair trial in Hong Kong, and that they may face human rights exploitation. He mentioned that the girl had arrived in Germany last November and had completed her interview in January, but had not yet been granted asylum.
This is not the first time the German government has granted asylum to Hong Kong people. In 2018, the founder of the Local Democratic Front (LDF), Huang Tai Yang, and former LDF member, Li Dongsheng, were also granted asylum in Germany, but this is the first time that someone arrested in connection with an anti-amendment demonstration has been granted asylum in Germany.
The organization was founded by four Hong Kong people living abroad, including Lin Rongji in Taiwan, Liang Ji-ping in the United States, Huang Tai-yang in Germany, and Zheng Wen-jie, who was recently granted asylum in the United Kingdom. The organization will provide information about the asylum policies of the United States, Taiwan, Britain and Germany to those in need.
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