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HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL 13 January 1988
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staken belief that they would be allowed to stay. Our announcement was y, very clearly directed at children under the age of 14 who had come to Hong Kong illegally and the press faithfully reproduced that announcement and there is no question in my mind that these mothers knew perfectly well that they were running the very serious risk of being repatriated. And we must not forget as well that a lot of these mothers were actually discovered as illegal immigrants when the department was investigating the background of the children who had been brought to them for permission to stay.
Sir, to answer the main part of my hon. Friend's question, there are reasons which I cannot make public as to why we cannot give special permission for these mothers to stay. But there is one important reason that I can make public and that is my belief that there is no viable reason why we should treat them any better than any other illegal immigrant mothers whom we have had to send back to China. And we must not forget also that some of these illegal immigrant mothers who surfaced as a result of the exercise we have just been considering have already returned to China voluntarily.
DR. Ho: Sir, can the Secretary for Security request the Chinese Government to consider a part of the 75-a-day quota to these illegal immigrant mothers to return to Hong Kong after they have been repatriated?
SECRETARY FOR SECURITY: Sir, again, can I remind Members that these illegal immigrant mothers are, in fact, queue-jumpers in terms of those who are waiting in the queue in China to get one-way permits. I do not think that within the 75-a-day permits issued they deserve any particular priority.
MR. PETER C. WONG: Sir, can the Secretary confirm that if a mother with a young child commits an offence and is sentenced to a term of imprisonment, the fact that she has a young child is not sufficient ground to ask the court for a suspended sentence?
SECRETARY FOR SECURITY: I can confirm, Sir, that is correct.
Government Business
Motion
PUBLIC FINANCE ORDINANCE
THE FINANCIAL SECRETARY moved the following motion: With respect to the Capital Works Reserve Fund that the resolution made and passed by the Legislative Council on 15 May 1985 and published as Legal Notice No. 131 of 1985 be amended by deleting paragraph (j) and substituting the following