Four Hongkongers in the United Kingdom, Taiwan, Germany and the United States have established a voluntary consultation platform for Hongkongers considering asylum in other countries, as a national security law coming into force on Tuesday sparks fears in the city.

Haven Assistance — set up by Simon Cheng in the U.K., Lam Wing-kee in Taiwan, Ray Wong in Germany and Brian Leung in the U.S. — will be operational on Facebook and Twitter from Wednesday midnight. Cheng said the platform would provide information on asylum policies in different countries and people in need could contact them via private messages on the social media sites.

There would also be seminars to introduce the culture of different countries and Hongkongers’ organizations overseas, said Cheng, who hoped to form “an alliance of refugees” via the platform.

“We hope to provide credible information to people in need because we worry that some people might fall victim to fraud or unwittingly break the law,” he said, adding that they could direct those in need to credible local organizations after learning about their cases.

The four founders of the platform are all high-profile Hongkongers who have fled the city amid growing worries of persecution as Beijing tightens its grip on the semi-autonomous city.

Cheng, a former employee of U.K’s Hong Kong consulate, left the city after he was detained for 15 days on a trip to mainland China. He said he was tortured and accused of doing U.K’s bidding as mainland officers forced him to confess to instigating unrest in Hong Kong.

Lam, a part-owner of a bookstore selling publications critical of Chinese leaders, was abducted and detained in mainland China in 2015. He returned to Hong Kong on bail in 2016 and decided to speak up about his ordeal. He fled to Taiwan last year after the Hong Kong government unveiled a now-withdrawn bill that would remove existing safeguards in the transfer of suspects from the city to mainland China.

Wong fled to Germany in 2017 after skipping bail ahead of trial for his involvement in a clash with police in 2016. Leung was one of the protesters that stormed Hong Kong’s legislative complex during the handover anniversary last year. He was the only protester that removed his mask during the demonstration. After the clash, he returned to the U.S. where he is studying for a PhD degree at the University of Washington.

The national security law — rubber-stamped by the Chinese legislature last month — came into force in Hong Kong on Tuesday. Its details have not been revealed and the Hong Kong public was not consulted prior to its enforcement. It bans acts of subversion, secession, terrorism and collusion with foreign powers but has stoked fears that the city’s freedoms will be eroded.

Click here for Chinese version.

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