Shutting the Door - Lessons for Europe From Hong Kong

"While Hong Kong citizens saw their relatives sent back, the Vietnamese were welcomed and provided with accommodation."

The migrant crisis continues to rip through Western politics as countries struggle to control their borders. Migrants are an issue in the imminent U.S. election and British politics. Even the much-lauded Schengen Zone, a key feature of E.U. membership that allows free movement, is now under threat. This crisis is forcing changes that would be unthinkable years ago.

Faced with a massive surge in irregular (read illegal) migrants, Germany has re-imposed border controls. Public outrage at the killing of three citizens at a music festival in August by a Syrian migrant proved the final straw. And German public sentiment has stiffened over the years since more evidence has come to light around the awful New Year 2015/2016 events.  That night across Germany, gangs of primarily migrant men raped, sexually assaulted and attacked women. 

Well over 1,000 German women and girls were attacked, with some 2,000 perpetrators identified. The media played down these attacks as police officers fearful of the racist label fudged the identity of attackers. The terms a ‘North African’ and foreign male hid the truth of marauding gangs of migrants praying on vulnerable women. Anyone familiar with the ‘Asian’ rape gangs that operate in England will recognise this approach. The British media is adept at massaging its coverage by a nomenclature switch using the term ‘grooming gangs.’ That sounds much nicer.

Meanwhile, Poland has just announced it will suspend all asylum claims. Donald Tusk, the past President of the European Council and a former strong advocate of open borders, has suddenly switched direction since taking over as the Polish Prime Minister in December 2023. In a bombshell move, Tusk is now pursuing harsh migration policies that may threaten the unity of the entire E.U. project.

Poland’s challenges are in part due to massive numbers of migrants crossing from Belarus with the suspicion that this movement is part of a Russian effort to destabilise the E.U. 

Other countries, such as Austria and Cyprus, are also tightening border controls or discussing deporting asylum-seekers back to war-torn countries such as Syria or Afghanistan.

The trajectory of these events has echoes in Hong Kong. Faced with a massive influx of Vietnamese migrants starting in the late 1970s, Hong Kong was encouraged to accept these people with the promise of U.N. support, including funds, and their onward travel to other countries. The U.S., in particular, was vocal and encouraged Hong Kong to take the Vietnamese in.

Yet, often forgotten is that at the time, Hong Kong was returning illegal Chinese border crossers daily to the Mainland. 

So, while Hong Kong citizens saw their relatives sent back, the Vietnamese were welcomed and provided with accommodation, albeit spartan, and fed. Then, when riots broke out in the Vietnamese camps and migrants became involved in crime, community sentiment hardened. Stories of Vietnamese women taking up places in maternity units to displace locals didn’t help matters.

By 1982, in the face of overwhelming opposition from the West, the Hong Kong government announced that Vietnamese migrants who entered Hong Kong after July 1 of that year must enter a closed camp. This policy helped assuage community concerns and acted to discourage arrivals. 

Still, the policy had its challenges, with considerable resources committed to housing, feeding, giving medical care and maintaining order in the closed camps. These commitments drew manpower away from dealing with routine policing, including tackling the triads, gun gangs and other crimes.

As a result, I spent time in the 1980s and early 1990s searching Vietnamese Camps for weapons and illicit alcohol and dealing with the occasional outbreak of disorder. All the while, the U.N. and others were on our shoulders, criticising and finding fault. Of course, the optics of placing men, women and children behind barbed wire is never good. 

Likewise, fostering conditions that encourage or provide incentives to make a hazardous journey invites risks. As far as I’m aware, there are no records of how many Vietnamese drowned making the crossing to Hong Kong. From debriefings, we know many hopped along the coast while others travelled across land and only took a boat for the final run into Hong Kong. Still, the hazards are there.

Hong Kong’s challenge with the Vietnamese migrants came on the back of the U.S.’s retreat and the eventual collapse of South Vietnam in April 1975. Again, history looks to repeat itself. Refugees from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq make up a portion of the migrants heading to Europe. Again, retreats — plus the failure to nation-build after invasions — set people on the move. 

One point: the U.N. still owes Hong Kong taxpayers an estimated HK$1 billion for housing the Vietnamese migrants. It is doubtful that the debt will ever be paid.

Hence, as Europe and elsewhere face an unrelenting wave of migrants, irregular or illegals, or however you wish to label them, some tough decisions shaped by realpolitik and national self-interest will be needed. In this process, the liberal values that shaped the West’s doctrine face an unprecedented shift. 

The door is closing.