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Governor: Perhaps I can give the honourable gentleman a rather more extensive set of figures which will give some indication of the demand that we may well have to adjust to. The latest estimates we have and we went through this exercise in November last year - the latest figures that we have suggest that at the end of 1996 there were 84,300 women married to Hong Kong men who had the right to come to Hong Kong, and there were, in China, 46,200 children with the right of abode in Hong Kong in July 1997. We reckon that by the middle of this year, in other words by July 1, those figures will have fallen somewhat but there will be about 76,500 women and 34,900 children, making just over 111,000 altogether.
The honourable gentleman will know that for almost two years, since July 1995, we have increased the daily quota into Hong Kong from 105 to 150 and as a result of that, legal immigration from China last year totalled just over 61,000. And that has, of course, put something of a strain on welfare and educational and housing resources in some parts of the community.
I have recently been, for example, to Sham Shui Po, to Eastern District, to Kowloon District, talked to the District Boards and others in those communities about the way that they are coping with these issues. I went to an extremely good elementary school in Kowloon the other day and saw what they were doing. I met a group of new immigrants in Eastern District and talked to them about the sort of information they need in order to adjust to life in the community.
We do have to do more in areas like education in order to help new immigrants. The Council has only recently voted another $500 million to help with the training of newly arrived immigrants. I am sure that this is a subject which the Financial Secretary, in due course, will want to address over the next year as well. I think the whole community recognises the importance of us ensuring that immigrants are able, as soon as possible after their arrival in Hong Kong, to make a full contribution to our economic and social life. Very often that means better targeted programmes to help them.
Dr Law Chi-kwong (in Chinese): Chairman, the Governor has not answered the crux of my question. The Governor has given us some latest statistics. I mentioned 29,000, he mentioned 34,000. According to the Common Law system, if they sneak into Hong Kong or if they overstay their two-way permit, we cannot deport them from Hong Kong. In other words, if, as these 34,000 arrive in Hong Kong, how can we deal with them? There are so many snakeheads who are spreading rumours about the possibility of staying in Hong Kong once they sneak into here. Now, with 34,000 children coming to Hong Kong we will need anything up to 35 schools to take them all and how do we cope with the problem?