Public Eye | Asylum seekers: there’s a colour line as far as Hong Kong’s core values are concerned
Pro-government politicians jump on the bandwagon in condemning asylum seekers, while pan-democrats keep mum on the issue ahead of the Legco polls
Let’s lock up all those dark-skinned asylum-seeking murderers, rapists and robbers in camps. Better still let’s throw them into a communist-run camp across the border. Or even better let’s quit the United Nations convention against torture. To hell with the core values we boast about. They’re skin deep anyway.
We don’t want communist immigration officials at the West Kowloon express railway terminus for fear they’ll use their authoritarian laws to arrest Hongkongers. We’re outraged that mainland agents abducted five Hong Kong booksellers. We despise the mainland’s human rights abuses, jailing of dissidents and free speech curbs. But we’re happy to let the regime we despise lock up asylum seekers on our behalf. We’re happy to kiss goodbye to a convention against torture. There’s a line to the core values we hold dear. It’s a colour line.
Public Eye totally agrees most of the 11,000 asylum seekers are fakes. But if we consider 11,000 such a huge number that it’s worth abandoning our core values, then those values are as fake as the asylum seekers.
Why do our political leaders so conveniently forget that the 11,000 didn’t suddenly pop up? They accumulated over many years due to government incompetence in assessing them swiftly. Surely, the best solution is fast-tracking the process to deport the fakes.
Are 11,000 causing such societal distress that political parties should demonise them as a tactic to win votes? Liberal Party banners were put up on Hong Kong streets saying asylum seekers are responsible for 3,800 cases of rape, murder, drug-dealing and robbery. It is a racist misuse of the figures. The fact is almost 2,300 Vietnamese illegal immigrants were caught last year, far outnumbering the combined total of South Asians. But the media and politicians have made asylum seekers synonymous with South Asians because they are an easier target.
When US presidential candidate Donald Trump demonised Muslims and Mexicans, candidates Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Ted Cruz, and President Barack Obama rebuked him. It’s called leadership. But in Hong Kong, it was our leader Leung Chun-ying who first broached quitting the torture convention.