Hundreds at risk of immigration ax

(The Hong-Kong Standard, Phila Siu) Up to 1,000 Hongkongers who applied to emigrate to Canada may have to abandon their plans or reapply if the authorities there accept a proposal to scrap a backlog of pre-2008 applications.

[...]

In Beijing, activists Jiang Yiming and Vancouver-based Gabriel Yiu Wing-on, a Hongkonger who emigrated to Canada two decades ago, yesterday handed a petition signed by around 100 mainlanders to minister counsellor Louis Dumas of the Canadian embassy.

The petition calls on Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to intervene.

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Don't scrap us

(The Hong-Kong Standard, Phila Siu) A group of mainlanders will petition Canada's top diplomat in Beijing today to vent their anger at a proposal to scrap a backlog of pre-2008 immigration applications.

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Gabriel Yiu Wing-on, a Hongkonger who immigrated to Canada 21 years ago, will be among those accompanying Jiang this afternoon.

He is confident the proposal will be withdrawn because other potential immigrants, many from India and the Philippines, have also voiced anger.

Yiu, who is in Beijing on holiday and to help Jiang, is an activist in Vancouver and will run in the provincial election next year.

The petition, seen by The Standard, says: "The minister, once the budget is passed, will introduce legislation to abolish our files without anyone ever determining whether we meet the selection criteria."

It says the immigration department adopted a "queue-jumping policy" in 2008, and began to process newer applications in preference to older files.

[...]

Read the full article here.