This article examines the Hong Kong refugee policy and its relationship to local people’s attitudes towards asylum-seekers and refugees, since the launch in 2014 of a new mechanism to assess their claims. Based on an analysis of debates between 2015 and 2018 in the Hong Kong Legislative Council, government statements and documents, media reports, two surveys on local people’s attitudes and an NGO interview, I argue that the government has sought to criminalize asylum-seekers by forcing them to breach Hong Kong’s immigration law. The article suggests that a pragmatic, inclusive approach would help the government to promote ethnic harmony in the territory.