TNAG-1723-FCO40-2436-Minutes-and-Hansards-of-the-Legislative-Council-of-Hong-Kong-1988 — Page 50

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HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL 13 January 1988

Oral answer to question

Repatriation of illegal immigrant mothers

12. MR. LAI: Sir, I am most grateful for your indulgence in allowing me to ask the following question at such short notice. Will the Government inform this Council of the circumstances leading to its decision to repatriate to China the group of illegal immigrant mothers who responded to Government's announcement on 28 April 1987 requesting illegal immigrant children then in Hong Kong to come forward for registration?

SECRETARY FOR SECURITY: Sir, the first most significant circumstance leading to the decision was that, because of the very large number of people coming into Hong Kong illegally, and we were talking about literally hundreds of thousands, in October 1980 the Government had to adopt a policy of returning all illegal immigrants unless there were powerful humanitarian reasons for doing other- wise in individual cases. But at the same time we agreed with the Government of China to accept 75 a day arriving at our borders with one-way permits. As a result we have been accepting for settlement in Hong Kong 27 000 a year, still giving us a very high rate of legal immigration in world terms.

Sir, we were particularly sympathetic in humanitarian terms when considering whether to allow children who had come to Hong Kong illegally to join their mothers here, and whether to allow them to stay. But our practice became more and more exploited by the so-called snakeheads. Increasingly large numbers of children were being smuggled in illegally, often putting their lives at risk.

So to put a stop to this illegal and dangerous activity, on 27 April 1987, the Government announced its decision to tighten the humanitarian grounds under which some illegal immigrant children were being allowed to stay.

But we gave parents and close relatives 24 hours in which to bring children under 14 who had already arrived here illegally and joined their parties here to the Immigration Department for registration. The authorities in China had agreed to issue one-way permits to these children after verifying the childrens' circumstances.

Sir, I must emphasise that the announcement of 27 April was clearly aimed at children under 14 born in China and smuggled in illegally after their parents had come to Hong Kong for settlement. But this announcement also stimulated a number of children born in Hong Kong to be brought to the Immigration Department to be allowed to stay. At the same time, a number of illegal immigrant mothers surrendered to the department and other illegal immigrant mothers were found during the course of investigation into the background of the children brought in for registration.

Very much as we sympathise with these illegal immigrant mothers, against the background I have described, they must be repatriated and return to Hong