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‘Welcome to Hong Kong, stay safe’: 100s deliver anti-extradition law message to travellers at airport (Jennifer Creery, HKFP)
https://www.hongkongfp.com/2019/07/26/pictures-welcome-hong-kong-stay-safe-100s-deliver-anti-extradition-law-message-travellers-airport/
including VIDEO and PHOTOS
Hundreds of Hong Kong protesters flooded into the arrival hall of one of the world’s busiest airports on Friday 26 in the hope of sharing their message about the now-suspended extradition law with travellers.
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Bearing multilingual signs, protesters sought to occupy a key part of Hong Kong International Airport from 1pm.
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The demonstration was organised by airline industry workers independent of the Airport Authority, including from the Cathay Pacific Airways Flight Attendant’s Union.
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Meanwhile, dozens positioned themselves by the passenger pick up areas, greeting incoming travellers with protest posters.
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They shouted: “Welcome to Hong Kong, stay safe.”
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A “Lennon Wall” – featuring Post-It Notes with messages of support for anti-extradition law protesters – was erected next to the protest site, while petitions to laying out protesters’ five core demands were distributed to passersby.
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List of demands:
1. Complete withdrawal of the extradition bill.
2. Retraction of the “riot” characterisation of the June 12 protest.
3. Release and exoneration of arrested protesters.
4. Formation of an independent commission of inquiry.
5. Immediate implementation of universal suffrage.
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The sit-in comes after weeks of protests sparked by the government’s controversial extradition bill, which was suspended on June 15 but not axed.
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The movement has since adopted additional demands including calls for universal suffrage, alongside an independent investigation into the police use of crowd control measures and their delayed response to a mob attack in Yuen Long last Sunday 21.
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A television monitor showed looped videos of police officers using batons and tear gas against protesters, as well as clips of white-clad men, suspected to have triad links, beating commuters in Yuen Long station with sticks.
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‘Still a safe place’
Ms Yeung, a 29-year-old flight attendant who helped to organise the action, told HKFP she wanted to let tourists outside of Hong Kong Island know that the anti-extradition law movement is nonviolent.
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“We don’t have a big political background, we just come as civilians to support protesters,” she added. “All we want is justice. We also want to make sure the public knows Hong Kong is still a safe place, provided that we’re united together.”
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She rejected the notion that the protest could give off the impression that the city was dangerous, saying: “We are just sitting here peacefully.”
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The gathering was also attended by a group of four high school students who had organised a separate display, reiterating the demands in five different languages, away from the main protest site.
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Sixteen-year-old Ms Ng told HKFP the purpose of their display was to spread their message to as many travellers as possible.
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“We can’t stand this anymore,” she said. “We have to show foreigners that we need their support and that we are not afraid.”
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Terence Leung, a 37-year-old teacher who used to work as a product designer and visual artist, stood in front of the airport action on a stool, holding a screen showing videos of Hong Kong police using batons and peppers spray against protesters.
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He told HKFP that he believed video was the most efficient way to communicate to travellers who speak different languages.
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“The most effective medium is to use video as well as graphic tools, that’s why I designed these fliers and videos about police brutality to explain to foreigners passing through this airport,” he said. “They show that the government is not willing to listen to the people instead they are using the police to avoid [answering] our demands.
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‘Identify with Hong Kong’
The airport protest attracted the attention of curious travellers transiting through the lobby.
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Oriol Casademont, a 26-year-old innovation consultant from Barcelona, was transiting through the airport with his two friends en route to Shenzhen. He told HKFP that he disagrees with the extradition bill and can relate to protesters.
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“In Barcelona, we also have a lot of repressions, we have a lot of politicians in jail so we really identify with Hong Kong,” he said. “We relate to this because in Catalan you have people speaking Spanish, so you have disagreements as well.”
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Samuel Leyne, a 23-year-old business and entrepreneurship student from Israel, told HKFP he was unfamiliar with the anti-extradition movement but was not bothered by the protest so long as it remains peaceful.
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“I come from a country where there are also protests,” he said. “If [protesters in Hong Kong] manage to get in the airport and show their emotions, that means it’s an actual issue because you don’t enter the Tel Aviv airport so easily.”
Hong Kong protests held at airport after Yuen Long attack – video report Hong Kong airport staff stage protest against Yuen Long attack (Nicholas Williams, The Guardian)
Staff at Hong Kong international airport have begun an 11-hour protest in an attempt to hold the government to account for violent attacks on residents by suspected gang members last week. Flight attendants and airport staff were joined by demonstrators dressed in black, the signature colour of the territory’s protest movement. Protesters could be heard chanting ’free Hong Kong’ as travellers arrived at the terminal
Protesters occupy part of Hong Kong International Airport to rally overseas support against extradition bill (Danny Lee, SCMP)
Foreign travellers targeted by demonstrators seeking to win global support for anti-government movement
An estimated 15,000 people, including aviation workers, join protest that leads to increased security at international airport
Aviation workers were among an estimated 15,000 protesters who staged a sit-in at Hong Kong International Airport in a bid to win international support for the movement against the now-suspended extradition bill [1]
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Dressed in black, the demonstrators gathered in the arrival hall of the global transport hub on Friday 26 afternoon to tell foreign travellers about their anti-government campaign.
Ahead of the peaceful protest, airport bosses arranged extra security and encouraged passengers to allow plenty of time for their journeys, but there was no disruption to flights as of 4pm, with the rally ongoing.
“We want to share this news with tourists, to let the world know about Hong Kong,” said one of the protest’s co-organisers, a flight attendant who declined to give her name.
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Caption: A Lennon Wall emblazoned with messages of support for the anti-government movement was installed at the airport sit-in. Photo: Winson Wong
The political storm triggered by the bill had resulted in weeks of street protests and clashes and put the city under the spotlight.
“We need the international community. We need people to voice out for us. Maybe on television, you don’t know the full story, but here we have videos and more information and we’re ready to talk to people to explain what is happening,” she said.
At least two areas of the airport’s arrival hall were occupied by the afternoon as people sat and chanted for the extradition bill to be fully withdrawn, including the cry of “free Hong Kong”.
One placard called for Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor to be “offloaded”, an aviation reference to removing a passenger from a plane, as protesters called for the Hong Kong leader’s resignation.
As well as the sit-in, a small Lennon Wall [2] appeared at the airport, where people posted supportive messages for protesters and notes in opposition to the extradition bill.
The sit-in had attracted scores of bystanders, looking on from various vantage points in the airport.
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Caption: Protesters try to rally tourists to support their cause against the extradition bill. Photo: Winson Wong
More than 14,600 signatures had also been collected from tourists, residents and industry workers during the action as they demanded that police arrest those who
indiscriminately attacked passengers and protesters returning from an anti-bill march on Sunday 21 in Yuen Long. [3]
They also called for an independent inquiry to look into what they called excessive use of force by police when handling anti-bill protests over the past month.
Some protesters walked around the airport to speak to travellers and posters and leaflets were distributed in what they said was an attempt to correct the police and government’s version of the shocking events in Yuen Long.
The protest action, organised by workers within the airport community, started at 1pm and was set to continue to the end of Friday.
The threat of an escalation emerged during the protest with air traffic controllers (ATC) raising the possibility of taking industrial action in the form of being “uncooperative”, according to pan-democrat lawmaker Jeremy Tam Man-ho.
Tam read out an open letter which came from an unknown number of staff from the Civil Aviation Department.
“We do not rule out the possibility of taking further action such as an uncooperative movement,” the letter written by “professional and conscientious” ATC staff said.
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Caption: An estimated 2,500 protesters gathered at the arrival hall, but there were no reports of disruption to services. Photo: Winson Wong
The Airport Authority (AA), which runs HKIA, added extra security to supervise the protest while the airport and airlines all urged passengers to ensure they reach the airport in “sufficient time”.
“The AA will work closely with its business partners to ensure smooth airport operations ... and [it] hopes that participants of the activities could avoid affecting passengers and airport operations,” an AA spokesman said.
Tensions in the city have stemmed from the controversial extradition bill, which would have allowed Hong Kong to transfer suspects to jurisdictions with which it lacked official handover agreements, including mainland China.
Critics feared it would remove the legal firewall between the city and the mainland, exposing suspects to opaque trials across the border.
Cathay Pacific Airways, the city’s biggest airline, said it had received an unspecified number of enquiries from its customers, prompting it tell to customers that flights would depart unaffected.
“We would like to reassure customers that our flights to and from Hong Kong International Airport are operating as normal,” an airline spokeswoman said.
Stephen Leather, who lives in Melbourne and was in the airport following a holiday in Hong Kong, said the protests did not deter him from visiting the city. He said he was mindful to avoid flashpoints, in reference to the horrifying violence in Yuen Long on Sunday 21.
“We knew where the protests were going to be so we stayed out of that area. It makes you wary of going to certain areas of the city that’s for sure,” he said.
“We hope they would continue their peaceful protest.”
The 60-year-old, who works in the aviation industry on aircraft cabin products, said providing there was no escalation of the protests and that it remained peaceful, he would be happy to come back to the city.
An airport ground handling worker, surnamed Chow, spent her lunchtime supporting the sit-in.
“I am just too angry with the Hong Kong government. The city is not safe any more,” she said.
“The police cannot protect us any more. I would like to support every Hongkonger. I don’t want to oppose the China government, I just want to live in a safe place.”
Links :
[1] https://www.scmp.com/topics/hong-kong-extradition-law
[2] https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3017943/police-riot-gear-descend-lennon-wall-protest-board-tai-po
[3] https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3019669/how-marauding-gang-struck-fear-yuen-long-leaving-pregnant
[4] https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3020206/one-seven-hong-kongs-elite-civil-servants-call-carrie-lam
[5] https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3020251/hong-kong-no-2-matthew-cheung-says-sorry-police-response
This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Airport workers join sit-in as tourists show support
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