Hong Kongers In The UK: The Hard Part About Political Asylum
A huge number of immigrants
Co-founded by Zheng Jialang, who was granted refugee status last year, and Carol Ho, the Stay Safe Project, has provided assistance to nine Hong Kongers in the UK, including Justin, since the beginning of 2024.
"The long wait and the lack of family and friends around for support can create a great deal of emotional distress," Ho said, "We are familiar with the entire asylum mechanism and provide legal advice and emotional support simultaneously during the process, hoping to share their sense of powerlessness."
Since Hong Kong's 2019 pro-democracy protests, the UK has become one of the top immigration destinations for Hong Kongers. The majority are in the UK on British National (Overseas) visas or apply for political asylum, like Justin. In 2023, the UK government received 84,425 political asylum applications, a 22-year high. As of June last year, more than 138,000 cases were pending.
The UK Home Office aims to process applications within six months, but more than half of applicants wait at least a year, like Justin. According to a November 2023 study by the Hong Kong Welcoming Committee, of 2,089 BNO Hong Kongers interviewed, more than 40% said that their financial health and emotional well-being had deteriorated since their arrival.
A huge number of Hong Kongers are flooding into the UK with the trauma and uncertainty of political and social changes and uprooting, but are the UK's psychological support and mental healthcare services ready to receive them?
Justin's story
Under the UK's National Health Service (NHS), family doctors can provide free mental healthcare services. But Hong Kongers have encountered great difficulties in using NHS services. "If you have to go through the official channel, that is, through the NHS in the UK to a clinical psychologist, they may not be able to recognize the condition of Hong Kong people," Ho said. What's more, the NHS is already facing a staff shortage.
Mutual aid and self-help within the Hong Kong immigrant community has become a way out, with organizations such as the Stay Safe Project providing services on a voluntary basis or applying for funding from the British government to maintain their services. But government funding is unstable, and there are questions about how to operate on a long-term basis.
Justin was arrested outside the Hong Kong Polytechnic University in November and charged with rioting. After seeing more and more people arrested, he decided to take seven days to say goodbye to his family, friends and girlfriend and leave for the UK, where he arrived on May 3.
In the UK for more than two years now, Justin is still “zero days away from settling here.”
Political asylum seekers are not allowed to work, but the Home Office offers accommodation to those who need it. For those who have their own home, like Justin, the Home Office offers £49,18 ($62) a week. Justin has struggled to purchase groceries and maintain a budget.
After a few months, his girlfriend broke up with him, saying that she couldn’t wait for him. That coupled with the endless waiting, saddened Justin. In June last year, he felt depressed. He didn't have the energy to do things he enjoyed (video games and listening to songs); he would sleep the whole day and hardly eat. After being referred by a friend, he found his current counselor, with whom he has weekly phone calls.
But then came the November 2023 asylum rejection email, which Justin called "a bit sad and funny, apart from being a big shock." He said his application was refused because he "wasn't a high enough risk," and he began to question his decisions, including speaking out for justice in Hong Kong.
While he has been in the UK for more than two years now, Justin is still “zero days away from settling here.”
A protester seen wearing a Xi Jinping mask during an anti-Chinese Communist Party assembly.
Providing a safety net
For Hong Kongers whose asylum applications have been rejected, the Stay Safe Project provides a team of lawyers, emotional support and parliamentary lobbying to help with the appeal process. The project's founders have also noticed the stages of emotional distress that asylum seekers often experience.
"When they come to a new place, they want to integrate as soon as possible. One of the ways to do that is to meet different people in the workplace. But they cannot work, making them feel ostracized by society and have low self-worth," said Zheng. Moreover, some "temporary accommodations are in converted from former military bases, isolated from the outside world."
The long wait exacerbates all these negative sentiments, Zheng said, "Most of the cases have been waiting for approval for more than one or two years. Their emotions are already very tense. They have no trust in people and no sense of belonging in the UK. And they don't know what the future holds." The Stay Safe Project therefore seeks to provide a safety net, "so that we can work with them to study the way forward," Zheng said.
Several other organizations, including the Association of Hong Kong Overseas Chinese in the UK, Hearth Talk and Hong Kong Aid, do similar work, and even receive UK funding. From 2021, the government has allocated £43 million ($53 million) to implement the Hong Kong British Nationals (Overseas) Welcome Scheme including nearly £8 million ($9.8 million) in grants for organizations that provide employment, mental health and welfare services to Hong Kong BNOs.
Melody's story
Many volunteers for these organizations noted that their aid is short-term and that they cannot provide prescription medication. Those in need must be referred to NHS mental health services.
BNO immigrants or asylum seekers can use NHS family doctors' mental health services free of charge, and the NHS provides three levels of mental health services. Primary care services include GPs (General Practitioners), Therapy and the A&E 999 hotline. Those who suffer from long-term emotional distress or have suicidal tendencies need to be referred by GPs to secondary care services, i.e. Community Mental Health Services, which provide professional treatment by psychiatrists in addition to clinical psychologists or psychological counselors. The third level is the Specialist Mental Health Service, which provides psychiatric hospitalization and specialized services such as treatment of psychotic and personality disorders.
Melody, a Hong Konger who arrived in the UK in 2022, has bipolar disorder and anxiety, and found it difficult to adapt to life in the UK. "Many of my classmates with a Hong Kong background were not too concerned about current affairs, plus there were cultural differences with my expatriate classmates,” she said.
The UK will reduce funding for the Hong Kong British Nationals (Overseas) Welcome Scheme this year.
Melody tried to seek help through different channels but either the waiting time was too long or they weren’t effective. "Once the school offered counseling, but the counselor didn't allow me to mention past trauma and only told me to focus on the present. I didn't find it helpful at all, and I felt more comfortable talking to a friend instead," she said, noting that the biggest obstacle was that she often had to spend a lot of time explaining specific Hong Kong and Chinese issues, which delayed the healing process.
Melody shared the problems she encountered on social media and noticed that many Hong Kongers in the UK had similar experiences.
Basil, a member of the Hong Kong Overseas Mental Health Support Team and a Senior Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner for the NHS, explains that the NHS is chronically understaffed and that waiting times vary according to community needs.
He said he understands that some Hong Kongers feel that NHS staff are unfamiliar with their background, and that even if interpreters are available, there may be errors in interpretation. Even so, Basil said they should still try to use NHS services.
Pro-democracy demonstrators during a rally in London to mark the third anniversary of the start of massive pro-democracy protests which took place in Hong Kong in 2019
Funding barriers
With the help of The Stay Safe Project, Justin has appealed the political asylum decision and is still waiting for news. In March, the UK government relaxed its policy to allow people like Justin who are waiting for political asylum to stay in the UK as long as they meet the conditions of other BNO visas. Meanwhile, he continues his weekly calls with his counsel. The project's legal and psychological support is important to him, and is a form of self-help.
Yet it and other organizations may soon face a new challenge: on March 8, the government said it would reduce funding available to them under the Hong Kong British Nationals (Overseas) Welcome Scheme to £1 million this year, and that regional services would be abolished in favor of separate funding from regional organizations or municipal governments.
As a result, Hearth Talk will suspend its clinical services but maintain its psycho-educational activities, such as webinars, art therapy, book clubs, etc. Tom, of the Hong Kong Helpline, said his organization will also be affected, as it relies mainly on funding from the City of London and the national government to operate. It will likely cut its staff from eight to five members. For its part, Hong Kong Aid's overnight hotline service will be downsized and people may have to queue up for help.
While they hope to continue their efforts to help Hong Kongers in the UK, these organizations say there is still a long way to go to establish a true safety net.
