Thousands More Hong Kongers Seek BNO as City Keeps Covid Curbs
- UK says some 140,500 people have applied for the program
- Hong Kong experiencing largest population decline in decades
A copy of the British National (Overseas) passport.
Photographer: Paul Yeung/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Thousands more Hong Kongers applied for a new route to British citizenship in the second quarter, as the city’s strict Covid curbs fuel a population exodus that’s undermining its economic outlook.
Between April and June, some 18,100 people applied for the British National (Overseas) program, according to figures released by the UK government Thursday. While that marked a 7% dip from the previous three months, when the city imposed some of its strictest social-distancing measures and threatened to mass test all residents, it was a 15% increase from the final quarter of 2021.