LONDON, Feb 9 (Reuters) – Britain said it was expanding its visa route for those who want to move from Hong Kong to the United Kingdom, in reaction to the sentencing of Jimmy Lai, the Asian city’s most vocal China critic, to 20 years in jail.
• Britain said the expansion of the visa route to additional younger people honours the country’s moral commitment to the people of Hong Kong, a former British colony handed back to Beijing in 1997
• UK foreign minister Yvette Cooper has called for democracy campaigner Lai, a 78-year-old British citizen, to be released on humanitarian grounds
• Britain says the deterioration of rights and freedoms in Hong Kong is continuing, and that it will engage further with the Chinese government on Lai’s case in the wake of the sentencing
• Under the visa expansion plan, children of British National (Overseas) status holders at the time of the 1997 handover will be eligible to live in the UK with their families. Previously they couldn’t apply independently from their parents
• The British government estimates that 26,000 people will arrive in the UK over the next five years through this route
• More than 170,000 people have moved to Britain from Hong Kong since 2021 under a special visa programme set up in response to a crackdown on dissent in the Asian financial hub
• Applicants must meet other suitability and eligibility requirements for the route, pay application fees and the immigration health surcharge
(Reporting by Sarah Young, editing by Gareth Jones )
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