Many well-educated expats are leaving Hong Kong due to the former British colony’s tough “zero-Covid” restrictions and the local EU office estimates that 10 percent have left the area since the pandemic began.
Citing APF, BT writes that people elsewhere in the world in places such as Denmark, Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand have learned to live with the virus but Hong Kong has been told by China that ‘zero tolerance’ should be the goal.
This is despite the fact that Hong Kong is experiencing tens of thousands of new infections every single day.
As a result of covid-19, Hong Kong experienced an emigration of 71,000 people in February. It is the highest since the pandemic began just over two years ago in Wuhan, China.
The travel restrictions have been harsh for the foreign workers who make up almost ten percent of the population of Hong Kong.
The border has been closed for visits by people from foreign countries. And Hong Kong’s own residents, who returned home, had to spend two to three weeks in an expensive hotel quarantine.
The emigration of foreigners can also be noticed in the rise of airline booking in recent weeks together with the fact that the price of a shipping container has doubled in one year. The company SendMyBag states that the price of sending something out of Hong Kong has become four times as expensive, compared to 2021.
Between June 2020 and June 2021, Hong Kong saw the largest decline in 60 years. And it does not seem to stop.
Chung Kim-wah, head of the Hong Kong Public Research Institute said, “Many more people will choose to move away from here if given the chance.”
