Words from Hong Kongers who chose deportation to the UK

Cecil Ducourtieux. By

Posted today at 04:06, Updated at 07:21

Raymond, Agnes and their two young children bravely join the Piccadilly Circus in the center of London this Sunday, June 27, to attend a performance in tribute. Apple Daily, The last daily criticism of the Chinese regime, five days ago forced a shutdown in Hong Kong. Like dozens of compatriots, the Hong Kong couple takes 4-page selfies in Cantonese and English, recalling the newspaper epic, considered one of the last ramparts against Beijing’s authoritarian hold on the region, the former British China from London in 1997, quoted by Colonial.

“That’s the least we could do, Let us tell about this couple settled in United Kingdom since December 2020. We don’t have a job yet, but we have found accommodation in Kingston [dans le sud-est de Londres]handjob It is cheaper than the center. And school for the kids too, that’s what matters the most.”, says Agnes. “We moved to prevent them from being brainwashed, which the government is setting up in schools. We don’t want that for them. In Hong Kong, you can no longer talk openly in the street and neither can you perform like this.” Raymond says, pointing to the other protesters.

At Piccadilly Circus in London, Hong Kong newspapers on June 27, 2021

A few meters away, Hong, in his forties, is carrying his little boy on his shoulders. He too arrived with his family a few months back, they too refused “Beijing brainwashing Hong Kong schools”. father has already worked “In the new technologies, finding it was not too complicated”. It was these reasons again – securing a future in a free country for their 7-year-old son, that prompted Richard Lee to choose exile six months earlier: “The authorities force children to like the Communist Party.”

read also In Hong Kong, two “Apple Daily” journalists indicted by courts after searching editorial staff

Richard holds the final copy of the daily published on Thursday, June 24, following the arrest of his management team. He is a former journalist ofApple Daily. “I lived there for twenty five years, we would have survived a lot. If I had not left, I would have been in danger of being arrested too”, he sighs. is a former journalist “Ready to accept any job, at least here, we have freedom”.

youth arrivals and graduations

Hong, Richard, Agnes and Raymond all obtained “BNO visas” (British nationals abroad), this right of residence allowing, after five years, to claim British nationality. It was announced a year ago by Boris Johnson’s government.is July 2020. At the time, national security legislation, which makes it possible to suppress any protest movement in Hong Kong, was imposed by Beijing in defiance of the treaty to return territory to China based on the principle of “one”. Country Two Systems”, was supposed to preserve pluralistic rule in Hong Kong for fifty years.

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