Council to reach out to Hong Kong refugees

A COUNCIL has taken the lead in welcoming Hong Kong refugees, and is urging Stormont to make a coordinated response to a surge of people using a new visa from the territory.

Ards and North Down Council will write to Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab offering a welcome to citizens of Hong Kong from the borough, and the support of the council in coordinating any settlement there.

It will also write to Stormont Communities Minister Deirdre Hargey requesting moves to attract and welcomed citizens of Hong Kong to Northern Ireland.

Councillors also agreed to dispatch council officers to investigate potential measures that may be taken to welcome families moving from Hong Kong, including messaging in Cantonese.

The UK Government introduced a new visa at the end of January that gives 5.4m Hong Kong residents — 70% of the territory’s population — the right to be citizens in the UK. Many are already leaving as a result of legislation changes from China ending Hong Kong’s previously independent status and a swathe of democratic institutions. In the first week the scheme had 5,000 applications, with 300,000 expected in the next five years.

Ulster Unionist councillor Carl Mcclean told the committee: “People will be fleeing Hong Kong and coming to this borough, perhaps in small numbers, but they will come, and this council will have a duty to them.”

The motion at the Corporate Services Committee received support from all parties, and will go to the full council for ratification later this month.