TNAG-1723-FCO40-2436-Minutes-and-Hansards-of-the-Legislative-Council-of-Hong-Kong-1988 — Page 167

十

immigrant mothers nave surfaced with their children in the

mistaken belief that they could take advantage or the recent

amnesty, (2) the Government is nere concerned with purely

humanitarian grounds and not the strict application of

policy or principle, and (3) any special permission granted

to them to stay would not adversely affect the daily quota

of legal immigrants on one-way exit permits, will the

Administration inform this council why it cannot grant

special permission to these mothers to stay in Hong Kong with

their families purely on humanitarian grounds and stricly on

a one-off basis?

SECRETARY FOR SECURITY:

Sir, with respect to my hon.

Friend, I do not think that these mothers did, in fact, turn up

at the Immigration Department in the mistaken belief tnat

they would be allowed to stay. Our announcement was very,

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 motners 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