ISLAMABAD, Sep 14 (APP): Hong Kong has very liberal visa policy for genuine visitors and especially for the business community and over 10,000 persons visit Hong Kong annually from Pakistan taking advantage of this policy. This was stated by Assistant Director Enforcement and Litigation, Immigration Department of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Eric K.K. Chan while talking to newsmen here at Chinese embassy.
Giving details of liberal visa policy for all genuine visitors including business community, he said, Chinese embassy in Islamabad has been granting Hong Kong visa without any delay.
He said the embassy had started issuing Hong Kong visa from 2003 for Pakistani nationals, 14 days are required to complete the process, he said.
Regarding asylum seekers, he explained that there are two kinds of asylum seekers coming to Hong Kong, one related to political cases and the others related to torture. These two categories are under 1951 UN Convention on Refugees and UN Convention against torture.
Eric Chan said Hong Kong is not signatory to UN Convention on Refugees while it is signatory to UN Convention against torture, therefore, it has to take up the cases in these both categories.
He said there are 2500 cases of refugees convention and 1500 of Torture Convention, under process and 700 and 300 respectively are Pakistanis and their number is increasing.
Eric said the Hong Kong government has to spend a huge amount to fight the cases of these asylum seekers, on legal fee and providing shelter besides other facilities to the applicants, although not a single case under Torture Convention has been justified so far.
He explained that visa policy has been introduced only to check such abuses and assured that if the situation improved, Hong Kong would again offer Pakistan a visa free travel because both the countries have very warm, cordial and friendly relations.
Over 15,000 Pakistani expatriates are also living in Hong Kong and contributing positively to the economic conditions and they are living there as law abiding citizens, he added.
He said during his recent visit to six countries including Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Vietnam, he has been explaining the same problem of asylum seekers.
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