Hong Kong Security Bureau accuses Bar Association of causing confusion by claiming law change lets authorities stop residents leaving city
- Security officials say barristers’ group mistaken in saying amendment to immigration law will mean authorities can override right of residents to freely enter and leave city
- The change is aimed at stopping asylum seekers from coming to Hong Kong and is allowed under a global aviation agreement, it says
Hong Kong’s Security Bureau has accused the Bar Association of causing “unnecessary misunderstanding” after the barristers’ group voiced concern over a proposed legislative amendment it said would empower immigration to ban anyone from leaving the city.
The bureau’s rebuttal on Saturday came two days after the association expressed concern that the government proposal could give “apparently unfettered power” to the immigration director to stop any individual from boarding a flight out of the city.
“In regard to the recent written submission by the Hong Kong Bar Association to the Legislative Council, in which the association’s standpoint about the relevant provision failed to reflect correctly the objectives of the provision and relevant facts, and led to unnecessary misunderstanding, we feel disappointed,” the bureau said in a statement.
Explaining the aim of the Immigration (Amendment) Bill 2020, the bureau said it was meant to fulfil the city’s obligation under the Convention on International Civil Aviation to prevent potential asylum seekers, or non-refoulement claimants as they are formally called, from entering Hong Kong to make a an application immediately upon arrival.
Under the convention updated in 2018 by the International Civil Aviation Organization, immigration authorities can request airlines not to “allow individual persons to board the plane” to Hong Kong, and to provide them with passenger information before flight departure.