- 7.
Dr Law Chi-kwong (in Chinese): Thank you very much Mr President. I have a question for the Governor. On February 27, at a Governor's Question Time, the Governor gave me a reply concerning the flow of illegal immigrants into Hong Kong. The Government at that time provided us with some information as to how many children will get the right of abode on July 1, under article 24 of the Basic Law and we were told very clearly that there was no sign that there was an influx of illegal immigrants. But then three months later we know that in fact in January, when compared with December last year, the figure has increased five to six times and the figure is ever on the increase and that's why we really doubt the credibility of the Government and whether the Government is competent enough to resolve this problem, tackle this problem, because on February 27, it seems that the Governor was not aware of the problem or the seriousness of the problem.
I would like to know what plans the Government has to solve the problem. Are you going to deal with this very seriously? And there have been suggestions that the Government should conduct a registration exercise concerning children in mainland whose parents are permanent residents of Hong Kong and I would like to know what response the Governor can give with regard to these suggestions?
Governor: I think I'm right in saying that a paper was presented to the relevant Legislative Council panel this morning on this issue and that paper, of course, gave some indication of the sort of steps that we're considering taking and I don't think I could usefully add to that, save perhaps to make these two obvious points.
First of all, it is extremely important that people don't seek to jump the queue, don't seek to enter Hong Kong illegally. When they do so, difficult and unattractive as it is, there is only one thing which a responsible government can do after the law has run its course. That we have done and that we will continue to do because not to take that action would send all the wrong signals across the border and would encourage more illegal immigration rather than the reverse.
Secondly, knowing the entitlements that exist under the Basic Law, we've been trying for some time to minimise the problems which the SAR Government will face after 1st July by increasing the one-way permit quotas and in particular by trying to balance those quotas so that we absorbed as many children as possible before 1st July, as we could. We increased the quota, as you know, to 150 a day and took that increase into account in our planning of resources for the future, such as the provision of primary school and secondary school classes. Now for that quota to work effectively it does require the assistance of the authorities in China. We've been discussing ideas for trying to make the system work better. For example, by making it more transparent so that parents could know how long they were likely to have to wait before their children could come into Hong Kong. There are things like that which I think we will perhaps need to implement but what is essential is that we should have the assistance, the full assistance of the authorities in China in making the system work.