Recently it has come to our attention that a job opportunity was posted on the University of New South Wales (UNSW) careers website advertising the role of “Probationary Inspector” in the Hong Kong Police Force (HKPF). As a group of UNSW students, we are alarmed at this posting and we strongly urge the university to withdraw it immediately given the following reasons.

The HKPF has engaged in extensive human rights violations throughout the Hong Kong protests throughout 2019 and 2020, and it is sickening to see its recruitment campaign on the website of respected Australian Universities such as UNSW. Amnesty International has raised concerns that the HKPF are “engaged in a disturbing pattern of reckless and unlawful tactics against people during the protests. This has included arbitrary arrests and retaliatory violence against arrested persons in custody, some of which has amounted to torture.” As Hong Kongers and Australians alike, we believe that human rights are universal values that should be protected, and perpetrators should absolutely not be given a platform to recruit.

We believe that this is a global drive by the HKPF to recruit students, given the massive drop in recruitment rate and officers leaving the force due to the aforementioned protests. However, until there has been a proper investigation into misconduct of the once-respected HKPF, we strongly urge the University to withdraw the recruitment advertisement and not promote any other careers that may violate human rights standards.