After the rash of positive headlines surrounding news that the U.K. government had launched a welcoming lifeboat for fleeing Hong Kong dissidents, the reality for two Hongkongers in their 20s casts a Dickensian chill on a goodwill story – albeit one that so far promises to have a heartwarming ending.

Our two protagonists, who we’re calling Ming and Ling, fled their home city in October, seeking – as so many thousands have done before them – refuge and a new life in the metropolitan bustle of Britain’s capital.

But in an unlucky case of bad timing, they found themselves locked out in the city’s COVID-19 clampdown after a new and more virulent strain of the coronavirus sweeping the globe threw a wrench in London’s plans to bring the outbreak under control.

Speaking to Apple Daily after a comfort-food Christmas feast of stewed beef brisket, sweet and sour chicken, topped off with fragrant tofu curd for dessert – staples of Hong Kong’s legion of traditional Cantonese eateries, the couple told how they almost found themselves sleeping rough in the bitter winter cold as the capital came under Tier 4 lockdown. That meant they could neither leave their residence nor meet other people over the Christmas and New Year period.

Already reeling from their trauma of being ripped away from home and family, the young couple were told by the landlord of the property they’d lined up that it was no longer available.

They were fortunate to find refuge at a hotel run by sympathetic Hong Kong emigres about two hours outside London, thanks to the help of self-exiled pro-independence activist Alan Li.

“We were truly lucky to find this place,” said Ming, whose sense of homesickness has been eased thanks to the generosity of the fellow Hongkongers who had gone before the couple.

A friend of the hotel owner, together with Li and another asylum seeker in the U.K. threw a festive dinner full of the tastes from home.

“I was thinking about beef brisket this morning and can really have it now!” Ming said at his first Christmas in exile. Home away from home. “I’m really happy!”

The couple’s story is no isolated case.

There were 44 applications for asylum in Britain by Hongkongers in the first three quarters, more than triple the 13 who applied in 2019, according to U.K. Home Office data published on Tuesday.

The surge has coincided with Beijing’s imposition of the national security law in Hong Kong at the end of June, which is deemed by many to be a tool to silence the city’s dissenting voices. In the first and second quarters, three and seven people officially applied for asylum, respectively. The number soared to 34 in the third quarter.

However, many more did not apply, including Ming and Ling. And they are waiting for the special lifeboat scheme for British National (Overseas) passport holders that is due to begin on Jan. 31.

Under the program, those eligible to apply for a BN(O) passport can, instead, apply for a special five-year visa that will pave their way to U.K. citizenship. Such visa holders can also move to the U.K. to study and work.

However, until Jan. 31, they are not allowed to work legally in the country – which generally means they have no stable income, and must rely on money sent from Hong Kong and their own savings.

“The difficulty we face is that we can’t work until the Home Office issues us an application registration card three or four months after the [asylum] application process,” said a self-exiled protester, nicknamed Smurf, who is currently applying for asylum.

“Many applicants from Hong Kong, including me, have not obtained this card after waiting for more than half a year, so there is no other way except to find financial assistance from those Hong Kong people who are sympathetic to us,” he added.

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