ABSTRACT
Hong Kong and Bangkok have rich history of immigration and have long been destinations for refugees. Before unpacking the journeys to asylum of contemporary refugees, this chapter first attempts to situate asylum-seeking journeys within their historical context. Most Chinese immigrants who entered Hong Kong between 1945 and 1947 were returnees who had lived in Hong Kong prior to the Japanese occupation. They fled to Mainland China to avoid the chaos that occurred during Japanese control. In 1954, the total population of Hong Kong reached 2.25 million. In November 1974, the Hong Kong government introduced the “Touch Base Policy” that granted identity cards to Mainland Chinese who had already reached the urban areas of Hong Kong, which granted some illegal immigrants the rights of residence. In 1982, the Hong Kong colonial government implemented a “humane deterrence” policy, with new arrivals being indefinitely detained in closed camps until resettlement to a third country was permitted.
