Minors Account for Third of 140,000 Hongkongers That Have Emigrated to UK Under BNO Visa Scheme

Hong Kong International Airport fills with the sound of tearful goodbyes as residents fearful for their future in Hong Kong under the increasingly authoritarian rule leave on July 22, 2021, as part of a repeating scene, to start a new life overseas, mostly in Britain. Isaac Lawrence/AFP via Getty Images

Since the implementation of the BNO visa programme by the UK government last year, about 142,000 Hong Kong applications had been approved by the end of June this year. The majority of the applicants are aged between 24 and 54. About a third of the applications are from persons under 18. Some commented that such numbers are staggering. The general consensus of so many people leaving is more to avoid the younger generation being brainwashed in the future.

Split further into age groups, applicants under the age of 18 accounted for the most, at 38,600, followed by the 35 to 44 years old, at 32,600.

Current affairs commentator Raymond Wong Yung-man described the numbers as staggering. The under-18s are the future leaders; many of the 35 to 44-year-olds may be professionals, middle-class, with children still at school. “All are in a hurry to run away rather than staying here waiting to be brainwashed?“ He also criticized those in the pro-establishment camp as hypocrites. “Praising their masters on the one hand, but sneaking away through the back door,” by arranging for family members to leave or their children to go to international schools if they had not left yet. However, he found it strange the authorities still say they want to ”snatch talent” from outside under such an environment.

Student Exodus and Class Reductions Intensify

The number of classes in public sector schools in Hong Kong continues to dwindle. In the first year of primary and secondary schools this academic year (2022/23). According to the Primary School Profiles 2022, after the reduction of 55 classes in the last school year, the primary schools will see a loss of 62 classes this year. In the secondary school sector, the reduction of eight classes in the same period last school year is followed by a loss of 22 classes, and the decline continues.

However, the Education Bureau still downplays the genuine reasons for the reduction in class, citing instead overall changes in the population of those of school-age and student population mobility, including relocation, parental choices (including switching from public sector schools to DSS (direct subsidiary, or private/international schools), and the shift in the population of school children due to their moving in or out of Hong Kong, and the like.

In his column in September, Johnny Lau Yui-siu, a senior media personality and current affairs commentator, questioned whether the official was serious about facing the problems that had arisen. He pointed out that the government uses the tactic of keeping everything low profile or diverting attention away from problems. But that is certainly not the right way to solve the problem, it is more like sweeping lighted cigarette butts under the carpet. The end result can be in one of two directions, “[the butts] can either be extinguished, or they may start a raging fire.” He continued to say that if Hong Kong were attractive enough for parents to stay and if they were willing to let their children continue their education here, there would not be such a large number of class reductions at all. He questioned, “Where do the wealthy and the dignitaries send their children to school?”

HSBC also released a survey a few days ago, showing that more than one-third of middle-class families have plans to send their children to study abroad. In the survey in May this year (2022), they interviewed more than 1,000 middle-earning people with current assets of more than HK$1 million (about US$128k), and 35 percent said they planned to send their children to study abroad. About 40 percent preferred the UK, followed by Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, accounting for between 16 and 17 percent each.

HK Government Plays Down Labour Force Shrinkage as a Non-Issue in the Short Term

In the “Policy Address” released earlier by Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu, he admitted that the labour force has shrunk by 140,000 in the past two years, of which more than 60 percent are highly skilled people. At that time, a government source said that young people aged 25 to 39 accounted for the majority of lost workers, reaching 78,000, and admitted that they had not seen a comparable situation in the recent past.

In addition, data released by the government earlier showed that Hong Kong experienced a net outflow of the population for the third consecutive year, with 113,000 Hongkongers leaving permanently in the past year.

Expanded BNO Visa Scheme to Take Effect at the End of November

BNO (British National Overseas) status is an identity granted by the UK to Hong Kong residents before the handover of Hong Kong sovereignty in 1997. About 3.4 million people hold it, but at that time, they did not have the right of abode in the UK. However, after the anti-extradition campaign in 2019 and after the CCP imposed the “Hong Kong National Security Law (NSL)” in 2020, the UK government considered that to be a violation of the “Sino-British Joint Declaration” signed in 1984. On that basis, it launched the BNO visa programme to provide all BNO holders with “5+1” years of residence, work, and study rights, after which they are eligible to apply for full British citizenship.

After the initial launch of the BNO visa programme, voices declared that the measures failed to take care of Hong Kong people born after the handover of sovereignty in 1997, especially the young protesters of the anti-extradition movement in 2019, a lot of whom are young people born after 1997. At the time, they did not have BNO rights and could not apply for the said visa as an independent applicant, and their fate would then depend on their parents’ intention to go or not. But sometimes, even though their parents hold BNO status, they may not be willing to go to the UK.

To make way for these youngsters, the British government decided earlier this year to expand the scope of the “5+1” visa programme. The expanded scheme allows youngsters born on or after July 1, 1997, who have attained the age of 18, to apply as independents, as long as either of their parents holds BNO status. The new rules, which will take effect on Nov. 30, are seen to likely exacerbate Hong Kong’s population loss.