Mainlanders apply for better life in Hong Kong

The immigration department is expected to start verifying their status on Tuesday, after the government agreed late Saturday that those who had overstayed their permits should be allowed to stay until their status is finally settled.

"We will continue our sit-in protest if we are not given the right of abode," one applicant told media persons. The temporary stay applications were given after the High Court last week ruled that 18 protestors, who had been detained for overstaying permits, were granted permission to stay until the High Court can hear their cases in April.

As a result, the immigration authorities on Saturday issued temporary special registration cards to 382 more mainlanders. Following the decision, the mainlanders called off a 16-day sit-in protest outside the Central Government Offices.

However, immigration officials said they would only consider those applicants with similar cases as the 18 people setting the test case. The January ruling has caused problems in relations with Beijing, with mainland legal experts questioning the validity of the ruling and raising fears about the territory’s legal autonomy.

It also led to hundreds of mainlanders coming to Hong Kong on visitor permits, some of which have since expired, to demand the right to stay.

The government’s temporary immunity for overstayers has raised his hopes there might be a quicker way to move to Hong Kong.

However the Hong Kong government has stressed the temporary immunity from repatriation will be strictly limited for a few weeks pending the outcome of the court hearing.

Most mainlanders fighting for the right of abode come from the southern provinces of Guangdong and Fujian, according to Father Franco Mella who has been helping the mainlanders. And many have been separated from their family for years.

A woman, who preferred to remain anonymous, said she had been separated from her husband since they were married in 1995.

Her husband had visited her and her three-year-old daughter at Shaoxing in Guangdong once a year and she had visited her husband in Hong Kong twice since they got married, she said.

Another woman named Irene, 21, said she missed her parents. Her father Left for Hong Kong a year after she was born while her mother joined her father when she was 12.

The possibility of a better life is another motivating factor behind the mainlanders. A 26-year-old man surnamed Fung said he could not find a job in Guangdong. "And even if I can find a job, it will pay very little," he said.

"Hong Kong is better than the mainland in many ways. It is easier to make money here."