HONG KONG - The Nepalese government is eager to cooperate with the Hong Kong government to solve the asylum seeker problem, the Nepalese consul in Hong Kong and representatives of Nepalese working in Hong Kong said on Thursday.
Refugee camps should be re-introduced to curb the numbers of bogus asylum seekers and protect the right of legal Nepalese in Hong Kong, Consul at the Consulate General of Nepal in Hong Kong Baliram Prasad Dhami suggested.
Dhami said measures should be taken to identify the bogus refugees among the 246 Nepalese asylum seekers in Hong Kong. Once such asylum seekers were verified to be bogus, the government could deport them.
If put in camps, asylum seekers would not be able to work illegally, but would enjoy a roughly HK$3,000 monthly allowance and their daily activities could be monitored. This could effectively reduce the number bogus asylum seekers because it would make them realize life in Hong Kong was not going to be as good as they had expected, Dhami added.
Chairman of the Gurkhas Group Holdings Ltd Pun T. Prakash said efforts should be made to identify how asylum seekers managed to come to Hong Kong, so that appropriate measures could be adopted – such as enhancing border checks or blocking illegal routes to Hong Kong.
Legislative Councilor Priscilla Leung Mei-fun urged the Hong Kong government to re-introduce refugee camps and cooperate with neighboring countries, which could shorten the time needed to verify the asylum seekers.
Leung also said the government should amend the existing policies on asylum seekers. About 14,000 torture claims are currently in the backlog for the Hong Kong government to handle.
Leung also hoped tensions surrounding the Nepalese community could be eased, as some legal Nepalese in Hong Kong were unfairly treated amid fears about illegal Nepalese posing a threat to society’s security. It was vital to distinguish legal ethnic minorities from illegal ones, Leung added.
Currently, there are about 25,000 to 30,000 Nepalese in Hong Kong.
