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While Hong Kong offers free vaccinations to anyone over the age of 16, more than 13,000 refugees and asylum seekers have so far been excluded from the inoculation drive due to their lack of residency status – a decision that has sparked widespread criticism.
Despite the availability of jabs, the city’s vaccine take-up has been slow. Like others in Asia, the city’s early success in containing COVID-19 made the public less fearful of the virus, and more likely to choose to wait before getting the shot. The rollout has also been hampered by a growing public mistrust in authorities. Yet as unused vaccines pile up, officials still maintain that shots will not be offered to refugees or asylum seekers at this stage.
Hong Kong’s Activists in Exile
From Nathan Law to Ted Hui, a growing number of pro-democracy figures are choosing life overseas amid a widening crackdown at home.
By
April 13, 2021
In this Sept. 1, 2020, file photo, Hong Kong activist Nathan Law, center, takes part in a protest during the visit of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Berlin, Germany.
Credit: AP Photo/Markus Schreiber
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From Nathan Law to Ted Hui, a growing number of pro-democracy figures are choosing life overseas amid a widening crackdown at home. Nathan Law, a leading Hong Kong activist-turned-fugitive, was granted political asylum by the United Kingdom last week.
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DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
Canada has granted asylum to 14 Hong Kong pro-democracy activists fleeing Beijing’s crackdown in the former British colony, according to a Canadian group supporting dozens of refugee claimants.
Jane Lee is co-founder of New Hong Kong Cultural Club, a group of Canadian supporters of democracy in Hong Kong that has branches in Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver. She said her group has assisted 30 Hong Kongers in applying for asylum in Canada, and of these, all have been recognized as claimants. Of this group, 14 have been accepted as political refugees.
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