TNAG-1723-FCO40-2436-Minutes-and-Hansards-of-the-Legislative-Council-of-Hong-Kong-1988 — Page 51

HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL 13 January 1988

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Kong, like many in similar circumstances, legally under the one way permit. eme. But we decided, on humanitarian grounds, not to detain or to repatriate them until their children, some of whom had been born out of wedlock, were all given the right to stay in Hong Kong. These illegal immigrant mothers were released on recognizance and asked to report regularly to the Immigration Department.

Sir, I would like to stress that at no time were they given any indication that they would eventually be allowed to stay. As adult illegal immigrants who have given birth to children while in Hong Kong, their circumstances are no different from many we have repatriated since 23 October 1980. To allow these women to stay would be grossly unfair to those whom we have repatriated over the years.

In order to make the repatriation less painful these illegal immigrant mothers may return to China with their children if they so wish. As they have been given the right to stay in Hong Kong, the children can return to Hong Kong at any time. As for the illegal immigrant mothers the sooner they return to China, the sooner they can apply for one-way exit permits to come to Hong Kong legally to unite with their families and of course with their children already here. We have no reason to suppose that they will experience any particular difficulty in obtaining one-way exit permits.

MR. LAI: Sir, with reference to the Secretary's answer on page 2, could the Secretary cite a few examples of the humanitarian reasons for not returning illegal immigrants and how do these actions relate to and affect the Government's decision on 27 April 1987, 'to tighten the humanitarian grounds under which some illegal immigrant children had been allowed to stay"?

SECRETARY FOR SECURITY: Sir, for very good reasons, which I am sure hon. Members will understand, we do not make public the humanitarian grounds on which we allow certain illegal immigrants to stay. The reason, I think, is obvious enough. As regards the second part of my hon. Friend's question, we have allowed some of the illegal immigrant mothers to stay because there were very strong humanitarian grounds for us to do so.

MR. SZETO (in Cantonese): Sir, can the Government inform the Council of the following: in order to solve the question of these illegal immigrant mothers and in order to take care of both the humanitarian reasons and the legal question, will the Government make such a suggestion to the Chinese Government, and that is, after the illegal immigrant mothers are repatriated the Chinese Government will immediately issue them double-way entry permits and also let them apply for one-way permits at the same time, and that there will not be a limit to their stay in Hong Kong after they come with their two-way permits until their one-way permits are issued to them?