More Australians leaving Hong Kong, says migration agent Paul Bernadou

Increasing concern about China’s new security laws for Hong Kong are seeing more Australians considering leaving the city, says migration agent Paul Bernadou.

A woman walks through a market in Hong Kong on Saturday. Picture: AFP

Increasing concern about China’s new security laws for Hong Kong and ongoing demonstrations in the city are seeing more Australians considering leaving the city, according to migration agent Paul Bernadou.

Hong Kong is home to some 100,000 people with Australian passports, a mixture of Australian born and Hong Kong and Chinese born people who have lived in Australia and obtained Australian passports.

While Australians are free to move back home, Bernadou told the Australian that those with Hong Kong born partners – wives, husbands and partners including same sex partners – are now quietly making inquiries about how to bring them to Australia on a permanent basis if things got too difficult in Hong Kong.

In an interview with the Australian, Mr Bernadou, who moved from Melbourne to Hong Kong 25 years ago where he set up a migration consultancy, said inquiries from Australians thinking of bringing their Hong Kong partners back home had doubled in the past few months.

“They are Australians so they can move back any time but they are inquiring about their partners including same sex partners,” said in an interview in Sydney.

“Eventually most of them will move back anyhow but the latest developments in Hong Kong are prompting them to make the arrangements now.”

“They want to have something in their back pocket if they need to leave,” he said.

Hong Kong, which officially operates under a “One Country, Two Systems” model which is supposed to be in place until 2047, saw months of demonstrations and violence last year after its chief executive, Carrie Lam, proposed a new law allowing people in Hong Kong to be extradited to China if they were accused of violating Chinese laws.

While Lam eventually withdrew the proposed legislation and declared the bill was “dead”, the city was racked with increasingly violent demonstrations for much of last year by young people concerned about the increasing controls from China on the city.

The situation was exacerbated in May this year when China’s National People’s Congress enacted what is called Article 23 of Hong Kong’s mini-constitution called the Basic Law.

Written into the Basic Law at the time of the handover from Britain in 1997, Article 23 requires the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, to “enact laws to prohibit any act of treason, succession, sedition or subversion” against China.

The article says it should include laws to prohibit the theft of state secrets, ban foreign political organisations from conducting political activities in the region and the organisation of groups in Hong Kong from establishing ties with foreign political organisations.

Attempts by the Hong Kong government in 2003 to introduce legislation enabling Article 23 to be enacted were shelved after demonstrations in the city.

But, with increasing concerns in Beijing about the recent unrest in Hong Kong, the Chinese Government made a surprise move in its National People’s Congress in May to enact the changes to Article 23, sparking increasing concern in Hong Kong about the potential for more Chinese control over the city.

While the details of the new laws are yet to be released, they are expected to include tough new provisions to imprison anyone who is seen to undertake acts or make comments which could be treasonous or critical of China in the city.

Lam’s government followed up last week with controversial new legislation making it a crime to insult China’s national anthem in Hong Kong.

Mr Bernadou said his migration consultancy was also getting more inquiries from people in Hong Kong wanting to leave.

“We have been getting a lot of inquiries from people in Hong Kong about moving to Australia,” he said.

“People are making inquiries, they are going back to their families and friends to think it over. It’s a major step in one’s life and such decisions aren’t made on the spur of the moment.”

“If they can’t get to Australia they are asking if they can get to Canada or the US, UK or New Zealand.”

He said there was great interest in Hong Kong at the moment around a potential visa for Hong Kong people with British overseas passports, but he said this may not lead to Hong Kongers being able to get permanent residency in the UK.

He said it was the combination of both demonstration and the new law was prompting a serious rethink by people in Hong Kong about their future.

“Some say it is like having a sword hanging over your head,” he told the Australian.

“They say even if they are ok, they worry about what life will be in future for their children in Hong Kong.”

Mr Bernadou said the inquiries from Hong Kongers wanting to move to Australia included those considering investor and business visas.

Mr Bernadou said the current period in Hong Kong was like the period in the lead up to the Handover in 1997 where many Hong Kong people sought overseas passports to allow them to leave in case things got more difficult.

“We are getting a lot more inquiries about spouses and partners than we were ever doing before,” he said.

“The demonstrations were always a bit of a problem but now the security law has got everyone in a bit of a flap, no matter which side of the fence they sit on.”

“Some people may be against the demonstrators but they may be equally upset by the proposed new security laws.”

He said many people in Hong Kong said they “felt like they had a sword over their head.”

“They are worried for their kids,” he said.

“They think maybe they can make it through, but they don’t want their kids to live under the proposed new rules.”