XN000022-1997-03-05 — Page 36

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Principles in granting TWP holders permission for residence

Following is a question by the Hon Law Chi-kwong and a reply by the Secretary for Security, Mr Peter Lai, in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):

Question:

It is learnt that during the period from January to November last year, the Immigration Department, in exercising its discretionary powers, granted exceptional permission on strong compassionate grounds to 73 applications from Chinese residents wishing to reside in the territory, whereas other applications were rejected due to the lack of such grounds. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(a)

(b)

(c)

of the principles and procedures adopted by the Immigration Department in determining if compassionate grounds exist when processing such applications:

in regard to Chinese residents who are spouses or children of local residents applying to settle in the territory, of the number of applications in the past two years in which-

(i)

(ii)

exceptional permission was granted, together with a breakdown of the categories of the grounds for approving the applications;

exceptional permission was not granted, together with a breakdown of the categories of the grounds for rejecting the applications; and

whether the right of the child as stipulated in Articles 9 and 10 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child has been taken into consideration in adopting the principles and procedures mentioned in the answer to (a) above?