While more than a million refugees arrived in Europe in 2015, Hong Kong received 2,602 legal refugee applications during the same year, of which 12 were approved (Source Immigration Department of Hong Kong).

Unlike most other nations, Hong Kong is not a signatory to the UN’s 1951 Convention on the Status of Refugees but did sign the UN Convention Against Torture and will let people at risk of torture stay. It can take a long time, sometimes years, for claims to be rejected or approved.

Ali Mahmuod from Mosul, Iraq, arrived at Hong Kong International Airport in May 2014 with a forged Egyptian passport. His asylum request has been rejected twice since.

Credit wire footage: AFPTV.

Published on Apr 4, 2016 for China Daily HK Diaries.

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