HK deportation law comes under fire from youngsters
HK deportation law comes under fire from youngsters
By Carrie Lee
HONG KONG (Reuter): "I won't go even if they kill me," said five-year-old Ng Sze-man, who sneaked into Hong Kong together with her mother a year ago.
"I want to stay," she said.
Ng was one of hundreds of children born in mainland China who queued with family members before dawn at government offices on Monday to seek legal aid to stay in the territory.
They sought to challenge a new law that threatens to have them deported for entering the territory illegally, even if they are eligible for residency rights here.
The scramble repeated scenes of recent days but a new development has given the children fresh hope -- a Hong Kong court on Saturday issued an injunction to stop immigration officials deporting three children pending a hearing.
About 344 children have applied for legal aid to fight the law, passed last week. Some 47 applications have been approved. The law, backdated to July 1 when Britain handed Hong Kong back to China, requires children to return to China to have appropriate immigration papers approved, which can take years.
Under the Basic Law, Hong Kong's constitution which took effect on July 1, a Chinese national born outside Hong Kong has right of abode here if one parent is a legal Hong Kong resident.
However, Hong Kong officials fear a flood of child illegal immigrants unless they return the kids to China to apply legally. An estimated 66,000 children of "separated families" are waiting in China to join parents in this capitalist enclave.
Families often resort to smugglers to sneak them in or face demands for bribes by Chinese officials who handle their papers. Cheung Li-lan, who was smuggled in with two younger siblings three months ago, appealed to Hong Kong leader Tung Chee-hwa.
"We didn't have a family in China," said 13-year-old Cheung, whose parents were both Hong Kong residents.
"In China our schoolmates discriminated against us, saying we didn't have parents with us.
"It's not our fault. It's not our parents' fault. We only hope Uncle Tung will let our family be together," she said. A father of another illegal immigrant girl vowed to smuggle her in again if need be.
"She will sneak in again. There's no alternative," he said. Social activists and legal experts have condemned the new law as unconstitutional because it retroactively restricts rights conferred by the Basic Law.
Others criticized its rushed passage -- the new legislature installed after Hong Kong's handover passed the three readings of the law in a single day.
More than 100 lawyers have offered to help the children free of charge, Hong Kong Bar Association chairman Audrey Eu said. "We in Hong Kong, we are a democratic society which believes in the rule of law," Eu told Reuters.
"So if you have a situation where children who apparently have this right under the Basic Law are removed on short notice without legal assistance, that of course in itself concerns lawyers," she said.