Put asylum seekers in reception centres and pull out of UN torture convention, says Hong Kong lawmaker
Priscilla Leung wants city to pull out of UN torture convention unless it can plug loophole that she claims has led to an influx of claimants abusing system
All asylum seekers should be housed in reception centres and limited to three months of legal aid, a pro-establishment lawmaker proposed on Tuesday.
Dr Priscilla Leung Mei-fun, who is also an associate law professor at City University, suggested that if these measures failed to eliminate abuses of the system, then Hong Kong should ask Beijing to seek approval from the United Nations to exempt the city from the convention offering asylum seekers protection.
Leung’s remarks came days after Beijing legal expert and Peking University law professor Rao Geping rejected pulling the city out of the UN torture convention, an idea once endorsed by Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying and former Hong Kong security minister Ambrose Lee Siu-kwong.
READ MORE: Mainland China scholar rejects idea of Hong Kong pulling out of UN torture convention
Hong Kong ratified the convention prior to the 1997 handover, but it is blamed by some, including Priscilla Leung and Lee, for creating a loophole that gave rise to an increase in non-refoulement, or protection, claims.
Non-refoulement is an international law that protects refugees from being returned to places where their lives or freedom could be threatened. Many are from South Asia and end up as cheap labour in Hong Kong’s black economy or turn to crime.
The chief executive said in January that Hong Kong would, “if needed”, unilaterally withdraw from the convention.
As of January, more than 11,000 cases were still being handled by Hong Kong authorities. Just 27 of the 3,355 cases handled since 2014 were confirmed to be genuine.