Hong Kong National Security Legislation

Lord Balfe Excerpts

Thursday 2nd July 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon]

My Lords, I believe I have already addressed this issue. The route, or the programme which has been announced, is specifically for those who currently hold or qualify for BNO status and their family dependents. As to others, each case will be looked at on its merits. If someone comes to the United Kingdom, from wherever they may be in the world, and seeks sanctuary or asylum in the United Kingdom, that case will be looked at on its merits.

[Lord Balfe (Con) [V]]

My Lords, I notice that the terms for people from Hong Kong are considerably better than those we are affording to EU citizens, many of whom have lived here for years. Will there be any salary threshold applied to new migrants who wish to come here, and will we treat them more favourably than EU citizens who are already here?

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon]

My Lords, I am sure my noble friend will recognise that the situation faced by those who are eligible for BNO status or have BNO status—or, indeed, Hong Kongers more generally—is markedly different from the situation faced by EU citizens, and therefore it is right that we have a specific scheme, as we said we would, for BNOs specifically.

Hong Kong: Human Rights

Lord Balfe Excerpts

Thursday 4th June 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Balfe (Con)]

My Lords, I declare an interest, as I was for some years the joint chair of the European Parliament Hong Kong friendship group and I have been to Hong Kong on numerous occasions. We are now facing what I think of as a Rhineland moment. It is a time when you have to draw the line, because the line has clearly been crossed. We have seen a lot of Chinese pressure over the years: China’s pressure on states not to recognise Taiwan; its pressure on countries when they entertained the Dalai Lama, as David Cameron did; and, more recently, its pressure on Australia when it called for an independent WHO inquiry. It is time now for there to be some international action against bullying, and taking in 3 million citizens is not necessarily part of it. I call on the Minister to tell us how he is going to get together with like-minded states and co-operate in opposing these Chinese moves.

Covid-19: Repatriation of UK Nationals

Lord Balfe Excerpts

Thursday 30th April 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon]

On the noble Lord’s more substantial point, we are of course redeploying diplomats in all our posts, whether they work on the security side or from a Home Office or military perspective, wherever they are needed, and they are key to the repatriation effort in each country—I know that south Asia has been a key area of focus—and that has been the right thing to do. The noble Lord says that nothing positive is said about Europe. I ask him to reflect on the comments I made a few moments ago on how we will be co-hosting a conference with our European Union partners on the important issue of the global response to Covid. That underlines the commitment of the UK to work with international partners in different multilateral fora—and, yes, including with our European Union friends.

[Lord Balfe (Con)]

My Lords, I am not yet clear as to what the numbers are. Clearly, two sorts of people are being repatriated: one is the people who were on cruise ships and on holidays who were just stranded; the second group is people who went often to south Asia because that is what they did on a regular basis, but they were not on holiday and they did not have a definite time of return. Is there any estimate of the numbers in those two categories, and what are the plans for getting them back? I think in particular of the holidaymakers, because they are no longer on holiday if they have been there for a month, and I guess that the cruise ship industry will have problems. Secondly, there are lots of planes sitting on the ground at Heathrow and in all sorts of airports. How do you choose who gets to fly the planes back, and why, when there are so many empty planes, is there such a long queue?

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon]

To take my noble friend’s final remarks first, a lot of countries have closed airspace, and you need to seek special permissions to allow aircraft to fly. Our charter flights have been operating; as my noble friend will recall, we announced a £75 million package, and we are working in partnership with airlines with which we have signed memorandums of understanding. Every time there is a charter route, we go out and get the best offer from an airline. For example, in India we have been working with British Airways, and in Pakistan we have been working with Qatar Airways.

On the specific numbers on cruise ships, I have already alluded to the fact that we have returned a substantial number—around 19,000 people. At one time we were monitoring a great number of cruise ships—I remember sitting in meetings, day after day, tracking cruise ships around the world. We have had a successful repatriation policy in support of those people, returning them either through commercial routes or, when necessary, running chartered flights.

On the specifics of holidaymakers versus people visiting family, the original estimates ran to around 20,000 people in India, for example, so the fact that we have already returned over 10,000 people is testament to the number of flights. However, the scale of the operation could not be underestimated. To take just the Indian example, we have now run 52 charter flights. It was necessary to run them, and, as I said in response to an earlier question, we continue to run additional flights because of the sheer scale of numbers, with people visiting family and in different parts of the world. Yes, we have committed to do this work and continue to do it. As I said, the job is not done, nor have I claimed that, but we are working through the numbers to ensure that those who wish to come back to the UK can be brought home as quickly as possible. We have prioritised the most vulnerable, which was the right thing to do, but we continue to work with countries on the ground to ensure that we can repatriate all British travellers who wish to return home.