Cross-border parents urge government to reopen Lo Wu checkpoint to help students get to class in Hong Kong
- Survey finds more than one in three cross-border pupils prefer the checkpoint for their daily commute
- But it will not be among those whose doors will swing open on Sunday as quarantine-free travel resumes between city and the mainland
Parents of Hong Kong students living in mainland China have called on the city’s authorities to reopen the Lo Wu checkpoint to help their children get to class more easily after the Lunar New Year.
A survey published on Friday found that more than one in three pupils preferred the checkpoint for their daily border crossing.
Under the long-awaited scheme unveiled on Thursday, at least 60,000 people a day will be allowed to cross the border each way without the need to undergo quarantine through seven land, sea and air checkpoints. They included two main land crossings at Man Kam To and the Lok Ma Chau railway station, alongside Shenzhen Bay Port, which continued to process a small number of travellers daily throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.
Thousands of cross-border students have withdrawn from Hong Kong schools over the past three years as Covid-19 travel restrictions. Those who did not withdraw have had to attend classes purely online.
Iris Liu Kam-fung, programme director at the International Social Service Hong Kong Branch, which carried out the survey, said cross-border students and their families still faced various difficulties despite the coming border reopening.