Refugee protest, Hong Kong, February 2014. Demotix/Geoffrey Cheng. All rights reserved.For more than a decade, asylum seekers from Africa and South Asia have beaten a path to Hong Kong. They have been attracted by its international reputation for rule of law, a rather liberal visa regime and economic prosperity comparable to coveted asylum destinations in Europe and North America.
Despite the city’s growing reputation in developing countries, about 7000 asylum seekers currently languish at the edges of society. Their high expectations for liberty, fairness and prosperity are not reflected in policies that seek their social marginalization. Now they are speaking out.
Months before Hong Kong’s Occupy unleashed popular frustration against the government’s apathy towards electoral reform, a refugee movement had been engaged in an occupation protest, calling for scrutiny of the politics that depicts asylum seekers as deviant vagrants.
