ABOUT 80 mainland dissidents remain in Hong Kong, and, with slightly more than two years before the handover to China, most are anxiously awaiting political asylum overseas.
Spokesman for the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movement in China, Cheung Man-kwong, revealed that nine of the group were due to leave for New York in days.
About 30 pro-democracy activists who made it to Hong Kong, many of them on the so-called 'Yellowbird' escape route established by Hong Kong sympathisers, have settled here and vanished into the community.
Twenty have left since January, taking to 520 the number taken in by the international community in the six years since the Chinese military crushed pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square.
Mr Cheung said those who had melted into the local community were doing a variety of jobs, one becoming a foreign exchange dealer.
'They have good jobs. Some have even got married and have kids,' he said.
Most wanted to put their past behind them and start a new life in Hong Kong.