Thank you for the opportunity to share our presentation on behalf of the Mustard Seeds Hong Kong Concern Group. I am Reverend Brian Wong. Our group is concerned with Hong Kong and has multi-denominational Christian members.
I would like to comment on the Canadian government's new immigration measures in response to the deterioration of human rights in Hong Kong under the national security law. This is a very encouraging start, showing Canada's commitment to protect the safety of the Hong Kong people, who share the same core values as we do, as well as the 300,000 Canadians residing in Hong Kong.
Given the unprecedented mass arrests of pro-democracy activists on all fronts since the imposition of the national security law and the diversity of Hong Kong participants in the pro-democracy movement in terms of age groups and professional and educational backgrounds, Canada needs to come up with a more inclusive policy to accommodate the needs of a broad spectrum of Hong Kong people under risk of political persecution. Our core objective is to save the lives of Hong Kong people based on the level of their risk of political persecution, not just the age, educational or professional background, or the socio-economic status of the applicants. Immigration measures should apply to prioritized categories in accordance with the level of political persecution.
First, prioritized categories should include high-risk activists whose passports have been confiscated and Canadian residents or citizens who were forced to surrender their Canadian status when they ran for office in the Legislative Council or the District Court council. Apart from the pro-democracy activists, it looks like certain sectors have been the targets of crackdowns by the Hong Kong SAR government. These include social workers, journalists, teachers, medical workers and pastors.
For these categories of people under high risk of political persecution, we urge the government to offer them special travel documents to allow them to depart from Hong Kong at the earliest possible time before they are arrested, convicted and imprisoned. We should also consider offering them the “essential traveller” status under coronavirus pandemic guidelines to allow them to cross the Canadian border under the above special circumstances.
With the restrictive implementation of the nationality law in Hong Kong, BNO passport and Canadian passport holders have been denied the right to exit from Hong Kong unless they officially surrender their Chinese nationality. We urge the government to follow up on the impact of the nationality law on the status of the 300,000 Canadians in Hong Kong, as well as the 200,000-plus Canadians who have been residing in Hong Kong without claiming non-resident status. We wonder how the Canadian government could provide consular protection to them in case of need.
Second, the applications of Hong Kongers who are currently in Canada seeking political asylum should be processed in an expedited manner, with a pathway to permanent resident status.
Third, Hong Kongers studying or working in Canada who will be subject to political persecution when they return to Hong Kong because of their involvement in the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement in Canada should be offered a five-year visa with an expedited pathway to permanent resident status.
For Hong Kongers—