Hong Kong’s Indian community anger grows over possible visa curbs

A wave of discontent is building among Hong Kong’s Indian community over what they say is a “misdirected” campaign by the government to end abuses of the system the SAR use to process asylum claims.

Prominent figures in the 55,000-strong, predominantly entrepreneurial community with deep historical roots in city, believe they are being unfairly maligned and have been left puzzled by recent comments from officials comments suggesting possible visa-curbs on Indians.

Heightening the sense of indignation is the fact that the clamour to “get tough” on bogus asylum claims reached a climax the same week that Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying lead a 50-strong delegation to India and was met by the country’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Chairman of the Indian Chamber of Commerce China Committee and long-time Hong Kong business figure, Rajkumar Sabnani, said there was “widespread’’ concern in the community and that a formal approach to top officials was being considered.

According to Sabnani, last year 500,000 Indian visitors came to Hong Kong and Indian nationals make up the biggest single set of visitors to Disneyland after people from the mainland, providing a valuable boost to a flagging tourism sector.

READ MORE: Indians and Indonesians to face new visa restrictions for Hong Kong

“We just don’t understand why a hard-working community who contribute significantly to the tax take of Hong Kong, contribute 10 per cent of the city’s export trade and have called this place home for many decades should suffer because of a system for dealing with people seeking asylum which is broken and has been so for many,many years,’’ said Sabnani.