Hong Kong Watch expresses deep concern over deportation threat to political prisoner Wu Chi-wai
Hong Kong Watch is deeply concerned that Wu Chi-wai, former chairman of Hong Kong’s Democratic Party and one of the ‘Hong Kong 47’, has been officially refused entry to the UK, facing deportation back to Hong Kong within seven days. Wu, a political prisoner, was allowed to enter the United Kingdom on temporary admission, following a deeply alarming situation at Heathrow Airport, where he was told his passport would be confiscated and that he faced deportation back to Hong Kong within seven days.
Background
Wu Chi-wai, 63, spent eight years as a Legislative Councillor, Hong Kong’s equivalent of an MP, and became chairman of the Democratic Party in 2016. A former social worker who studied in the United States, he built his political career around the pro-democracy movement the party had championed since its founding ahead of the 1997 handover.
In 2020, Wu helped organise an unofficial “primary election” ahead of Legislative Council elections, the first real test of Beijing’s newly imposed Hong Kong National Security Law. That law, introduced on 30 June 2020, criminalised secession, subversion, terrorism and foreign collusion. It was followed in March 2024 by the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance (Article 23), which added offences including treason, insurrection and sedition. Both laws have drawn heavy international criticism for their scope and their chilling effect on basic freedoms, and the UK government’s own country guidance accepts that a genuine fear of prosecution under them can amount to a valid political claim, given how severe and disproportionate the penalties often are.
Wu was arrested in the security sweep that followed in November 2020, charged in 2021, and pleaded guilty the following year, as most of his co-defendants did, believing conviction was inevitable and that a plea would reduce his sentence. He received four years and five months in prison as part of the Hong Kong 47 case, in which 45 of the 47 defendants were jailed for between four and seven years. He was released on 30 June 2026 after serving his full term.
Wu is far from alone. Hong Kong Free Press has reported that multiple Democratic Party members have been jailed or detained over national security offences, including Helena Wong, Lam Cheuk-ting, and former chair Albert Ho, part of a wider collapse that has pushed Hong Kong’s once-largest opposition party toward disbanding entirely.
Wu holds British National (Overseas) (BN(O)) status, and after his release he travelled to Britain to settle under the BN(O) visa route, which allows eligible Hong Kongers to apply for residence without going through the standard overseas asylum process. He was informed that he could apply for BN(O) status within the UK by the British Consulate in Hong Kong. Despite this, he was detained on arrival, his passport confiscated, and told he faced removal within a week. The Home Office described it as an administrative issue with his paperwork. Mr Wu has now entered the UK under temporary admission while officially refused, meaning the threat of deportation remains pending review.
Responding to the initial news in The Times, Lord Alton of Liverpool, Patron of Hong Kong Watch and Chair of the Joint Committee on Human Rights, said:
“Detention and threatened deportation of a pro-democracy advocate is the sort of belligerent behaviour I associate with the Chinese Communist Party rather than the UK. Shabana Mahmood has had a long and honourable track record in calling out the many violations of human rights in China. I hope she will find out what happened at Heathrow and explain the difference between dictatorship and democracy to whoever threatened Mr Wu.”
Megan Khoo, Policy Director of Hong Kong Watch, said:
“After four years in prison for the ‘crime’ of helping organise a primary election, Wu Chi-wai deserves safety, dignity, and the chance to continue speaking for the people of Hong Kong from British soil.
We will continue to press the Home Office to explain how this administrative error occurred, so that no other prisoner of conscience arriving in the UK is made to feel that, despite assurances to the contrary, the country offering them refuge might send them back into harm’s way.”
香港監察深切關注政治犯胡志偉入境英國前一度被扣留 仍面臨遣返威脅
香港監察深切關注前香港民主黨主席、47人案被告胡志偉曾經被英國邊境拒絕入境，或在七天內遣返香港。政治犯胡志偉獲准臨時入境英國前一度在希斯路機場被扣留，被告知護照會被沒收，或在七天內遣返香港，事件令人深感擔憂。
背景
胡志偉持有BNO身分，47人案刑滿獲釋後希望透過BNO簽證計劃移居英國，計劃讓合資格香港人毋須經過標準海外庇護程序，即可申請居留。胡獲英國駐香港總領事館告知，他可在英國境內申請BNO簽證。儘管如此，他抵達英國後仍被扣留，護照被沒收，並被告知一週內會被遣返。內政部稱事件涉及文件行政問題。胡目前在官方拒絕的情況下，獲准臨時入境英國，意即遣返威脅仍然有待審查。
香港監察贊助人、英國國會人權聯合委員會主席奧爾頓勳爵（Lord Alton of Liverpool）回應《泰晤士報》的最初報導時表示：
「扣留並威脅遣返民主倡議者這種好鬥行為，我會聯想到中國共產黨，而非英國。馬曼婷（Shabana Mahmood）長期批評中國侵犯人權行為，一直備受尊敬。我希望她會查明究竟希斯路機場發生甚麼事，並向威脅胡志偉的人解釋獨裁與民主之間的分別。」
香港監察政策總監Megan Khoo表示：
「因協助組織初選『罪』而入獄四年後，胡志偉理應享有安全、尊嚴，以及在英國土地繼續為香港人發聲的機會。
我們會繼續要求內政部解釋這項行政錯誤怎樣發生，以免其他抵英良心犯覺得，儘管英國政府曾經保證不會這樣做，但向他們提供庇護的國家可能還是會將他們送回危險之地。」
Photo: VOA, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons