A coalition of civic groups yesterday called for the Hong Kong Humanitarian Assistance Action Plan to be improved by making it more transparent and flexible.
The civic groups commended the government for the plan after the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday unveiled it and an office to oversee it, but added that there were problems with it.
The council should specify what conditions prospective Hong Kong immigrants must meet and unpack the review procedure that applications would go through, Taiwan Citizen Front spokesman Chiang Min-yen (江旻諺) told a news conference outside the Executive Yuan in Taipei.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
Attorney Lin Chun-hung (林俊宏), a spokesman for TW-HK Legal Support, said that the plan only deals with applications for settlement, while neglecting applications filed under special circumstances — for example, when a dissident’s travel documents have been confiscated by the Hong Kong government.
The plan does not allow judicial remedy if an application to settle in the nation is rejected by the office, which is to begin operations at the start of next month, Lin said.
The office would be tasked with handling education, immigration and investment needs, which would be governed by “internal” council rules, Economic Democracy Union convener Lai Chung-chiang (賴中強) said, citing MAC’s description.
However, just as regulations regarding foreign investment are made public, so should regulations on political asylum, Lai said.
Citing the Principles of Government Transparency for the Executive Yuan and Subordinate Agencies promulgated by the Ministry of Justice, he said that Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) should order the council to clarify the rules on offering humanitarian assistance to Hong Kongers, he said.
Taiwan Association for Human Rights legal department director Wang Si (王曦) said that the government should create a body to monitor interdepartmental efforts to provide Hong Kongers with accommodations and other assistance.
Some of the office staff should be legal and human rights experts from the public sphere, Wang said.
International law forbids a government from repatriating asylum seekers against their will, so the government must not repatriate applicants to Hong Kong should they not want to return there, she said.
Asked whether Hong Kongers seeking asylum through unconventional means would be approved, Executive Yuan spokesman Ting Yi-ming (丁怡銘) at a later news conference said that those situations would be reviewed case-by-case.
Asked about criticism that there are no clear rules on reviewing applications, Ting said that every application is different, so there cannot be across-the-board rules.
The government has always provided Hong Kongers with assistance, and the council would likewise strive to provide substantial assistance within its purview, he added.
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