Hundreds of UK churches join initiative to welcome Hong Kong migrants

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – Over 500 British churches have joined a UK-wide initiative to welcome Hong Kong residents escaping China’s increasingly oppressive policies in the city, the Christian Post reports.

The “Hong Kong ready” initiative was launched after the British government announced migration permission to Hong Kong holders of the British National Overseas (BNO) passport.

Hong Kong was a British colony until it came under the control of the Chinese government in 1997. Beijing has since brought repressive measures to bear against the city and many democracy activists have been jailed. In a statement about the current situation in Hong Kong, religious freedom activist Bob Fu said: “The crackdown is so severe in some areas of Hong Kong that freedom of speech and freedom of association is actually worse than in mainland China. There is arbitrary detention, massive surveillance, and a huge crackdown of legally elected legislators.”

The UK’s “Hong Kong Ready” initiative centers around the www.UKHK.org website launched from London on Friday by Krish Kandiah, founder of the Home for Good charity, with the aid of Bishop of London Dame Sarah Mullally, CP reports. The website is available in English and Cantonese and provides newcomers with a wide range of information on settling in the UK, including on how to apply for work, enroll children in schools, register with a doctor, and get around on public transport.

In a statement about the initiative, Kandiah said: “Moving continents is difficult at the best of times but it is particularly challenging during a global pandemic. That’s why we want to welcome the new arrivals here today in the center of London, conjuring the spirit of the 2012 Olympics, and show off the best of Great Britain.”

It is anticipated around 130,000 Hong Kongers will arrive in Britain this year, in the largest planned migration since the MV Empire Windrush brought workers from Jamaica, Trinidad, and Tobago, and other islands, to help fill post-war UK labor shortages in 1948, CP reports.

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