Ethnic minority groups in Hong Kong harassed and discriminated against amid online rumours pinning blame for Yuen Long attack on them
- Community in tense northern town anxious as some members close businesses and others stay home
- Tensions fly following arrest of Nepali man in area over ‘possession of offensive weapons’
Ethnic minority groups in Hong Kong have become the target of harassment and discrimination with some forced to close businesses and stay home after internet users suggested members of the community were behind the vicious Yuen Long attack last week.
In one case, a group of Nepali men living in Yuen Long suddenly found themselves being confronted by locals on the street on the night of July 21, just an hour after a white-clad mob beat up passengers at the MTR station.
The Nepali group was verbally abused, pushed and also accused of attacking civilians, according to community leader Jimmy Singh Baljinder.
He said the misunderstanding was directed particularly towards Indian, Pakistani and Nepali residents who live in Yuen Long and New Territories West. In fear of being targeted, many of them did not show up for work, cancelled their social appointments and barely left home.
“Many ethnic minority group members are living in fear recently,” said Singh, co-founder of the Racial Integration Education and Welfare Association, an NGO.
A 44-year-old Pakistani security guard, who did not want to reveal his real name, said he took a few days off work to avoid harassment in public. He lives with his wife and two children in Yuen Long, and said he would try to stay indoors as much as possible until tensions subsided.
“I only go to the supermarket nearby to buy food, and even there I got odd stares from people,” he said.
“I feel scared because you can never tell what they are thinking – are they trying to hit you, kick you or are they just angrily looking at you? I tell my children not to go out and play too.”
I tell my children not to go out and play too
A week ago, violence broke out in the northern town when a group of men with sticks and metal rods stormed Yuen Long MTR station and attacked commuters, seeming to target protesters in black who were returning from an earlier march in the city centre.
At least 45 people were injured and 12 arrested over the incident, which further deepened rifts in society. Hong Kong has been rocked by weeks of protests against the now-shelved extradition bill, which would have allowed the transfer of suspects to jurisdictions with which the city has no such agreement, including mainland China.
The July 21 attack in Yuen Long, suspected to be by triad gangs, was seen as retaliation against protesters who had occupied streets and disrupted businesses.
On the internet, messages circulated that ethnic minority group members were involved in the assault, with one user on popular forum HKGolden claiming: “Sources say South Asians ambushed protesters returning home at Yuen Long MTR station”.
On Sunday, police arrested a 30-year-old man of Nepali origin in Yuen Long on the charge of “possession of offensive weapons”.
Singh said of the masked attackers: “[They] are unfamiliar to us too. But people may tar us with the same brush and stereotype all dark-skinned people as gangsters.”
But people may tar us with the same brush and stereotype all dark-skinned people as gangsters
As for the group of targeted Nepalis, Singh said they were only chatting and drinking beer at a basketball court when some Chinese men showed up and hurled verbal abuse at them.
The Nepalis tried to answer in English that they had nothing to do with the attacks, but were asked: “Why did you beat up Hong Kong people?”
Singh said the confrontational group continued to push and yell at the men.
Singh, who is a fifth-generation Indian resident in Hong Kong, said he was worried that recent events had heightened racial tensions in the city.
His NGO had spread the word among ethnic minority communities to warn them against engaging in violent acts, even if they were offered money by triads to do so. Singh added he hoped Hong Kong would remain a tolerant, inclusive society that welcomed people of all ethnicities.
Rizwan Ullah, joint secretary of the Pakistan Association of Hong Kong, said he had only heard of some isolated incidents of discrimination, but feared the situation would get worse as social divisions in Hong Kong continued to deepen.
“Racial discrimination will get a lot worse if ethnic minorities are actually found and pictured beating up protesters,” he said.
“I am still confident Hongkongers will be able to distinguish between a few lawbreaking people and most ethnic minority group members who are law-abiding residents.”
Amod Rai, secretary of the Gurkha Cemeteries Trust, a Nepali community group in the city, said most of the mob members seen that night at the station attack appeared to be Chinese.
“Although some [ethnic minority] individuals might be involved, we can’t label the entire community,” he said. “We have our long Hong Kong Gurkha history, and have made great contributions and sacrifices [for the city].”
According to a 2016 government by-census, there were 584,383 ethnic minority residents in Hong Kong, accounting for 8 per cent of the total population.
Between 2013 and last year, there were a total of 397 complaints lodged under the Race Discrimination Ordinance with the Equal Opportunities Commission, the city’s equality watchdog.
