HONG KONG SAR - MIGRATION  IN 2000

The GDP growth of 10 percent in the year 2000 surpassed the government’s forecast of 8.8 percent. Nevertheless, consumers’ confidence in Hong Kong remained modest, especially in the declining property market. This, in turn, has made banks reluctant to lend out money and interest rates are very high. Unemployment declined to 4.8 percent, but this was still high by Hong Kong standards.

Cases related to the right to abode hogged the news throughout the year. First, overstayers detained at Victoria prison went on a hunger strike, with people outside the jail supporting their protest. Then the government promised legal aid to 5,437 mainlanders who were challenging the order for removal, triggering the request of 2,500 more overstayers, who were denied legal aid, for similar treatment. Claimants sought the right to abode on the basis of the 29 January 1999 Court of Final Appeal ruling instead of Beijing’s 26 June 1999 interpretation of the Basic Law. The case was adjudicated in July, when Justice Frank Stock rejected the claim and upheld Beijing’s interpretation of the Basic Law. Protests against repatriation turned violent in August when the 13th floor of the Immigration Tower was set on fire. The appeal to the July decision began in October, but the Court of Appeal upheld the decision and denied again the right of abode to the more than 5,000 claimants. However, they were allowed to stay in Hong Kong for one final appeal. In the meantime the Court ruled that adopted children did not have the right of abode and had to return to the mainland. However, as the High Court ruled in December 1999 that children born in Hong Kong have the right of abode even if their parents do not, babies born to women staying illegally in Hong Kong to give birth rose by 47 percent in the first two months of the year. Two schools were opened to facilitate the integration of about 2,000 children who arrive every month from the Mainland.

Hong Kong’s action against irregular migration – action against irregular migrants in Hong Kong and its cooperation with Mainland China against traffickers – stiffened in 2000. Some 853 irregular migrants were arrested in January. The number of irregular migrants jailed for committing crimes has increased every year since 1995. Hong Kong police forged ties with Vancouver police to crack down on international smuggling. The discovery of irregular migrants shipped in hard top containers from Hong Kong alerted the authorities and the health risks of such a practice. Migrants trying to go abroad in irregular ways as well as irregular migrants in Hong Kong were caught throughout the year, prompting Security Secretary Regina Ip to call for more international cooperation against migrant traffickers.

In February the government decided to grant temporary identity cards to 1,408 Vietnamese still in Hong Kong. Although they all had a criminal record, authorities did not consider them dangerous, as their crimes were minor and were committed more than five years ago. Integrating the remaining Vietnamese was considered more effective and least costly than keeping them in the refugee camp. By 5 April, the deadline, 90 percent of the Vietnamese had applied for identity cards. A total of 143 rejected the offer, hoping to be resettled in another country or because they found it difficult to integrate in Hong Kong. The Pillar Point camp, which accommodated more than 200,000 Vietnamese refugees since 1975, was turned over from Caritas-Hong Kong to Civil Aid Service after the last refugees left on 21 June. In the meantime, Vietnamese caught entering Hong Kong were deported back to Hanoi. Since March 1989, 14,982 Vietnamese had been repatriated and 57,344 had voluntarily returned home.

The Census and Statistics Department expected the territory’s population to reach seven million in the year 2000, exceeding the 1996 forecast. In 1999 the population reached 6.97 million, 169,200 more than in 1998. The increase was due mainly to immigration (150,600, of whom 54,000 from the Mainland) and the rest to natural increase. At the same time, emigration from Hong Kong declined. Only 12,900 people emigrated in 1999, a decrease of 33 percent over the previous year.

The minimum wage of domestic workers, which was reduced by 5 percent in 1999, was frozen in 2000. The Privacy Commissioner ruled that families had the right to use hidden cameras to check up on house workers, if probable cause warrants it. A new ruling limited from three to two the chances domestic workers have in applying for a new contract. If the second application fails, they must return to their country of origin.

Mainland irregular immigrants working as sex workers increased, spurring the sex trade in the Shamshuipo area and triggering a protest by the local people. A survey conducted in November found that 43 percent of respondents resent the use of social services by new immigrants from China.