Media, activists crowd HK court room for Pinay's bid for residency

Journalists, lawyers and activists packed Hong Kong's High Court as it started hearing Monday the bid of a long-staying Filipino domestic helper for permanent residency there. Radio-Television Hong Kong reported that the court heard the bid for permanent residency of Evangeline Banao Vallejos, who had worked in Hong Kong since 1986. Vallejos triggered a judicial review last year after the Hong Kong Immigration Department rejected her application for right of abode, the report said. Vallejos' lawyer Senior Counsel Gladys Li argued the decision of Hong Kong immigration authorities to deny her permanent abode was discriminatory and unconstitutional, the report added. "There is no criteria (under the Basic Law) that any group must satisfy certain higher standards ... There is no exclusion based on race, religion, nationality... or place of birth," the report quoted Li as saying. Hong Kong's Basic Law entitles non-citizens to permanent residency if they have "ordinarily resided" in the city for a continuous period of seven years, Li explained. The RTHK report noted the territory's immigration laws specifically exclude some 292,000 foreign domestic helpers in the city as they are not considered as ordinary residents. Some critics had said a favorable ruling by the court will open the floodgates to thousands of foreign maids to apply for residency. They warned there would be an influx of as many as 500,000 people -- including children and spouses of the maids. They said it may cost an extra HK$25 billion a year in social welfare spending. Packed courtroom A separate report on Hong Kong's "The Standard" said about 100 people were seated in the lobby outside High Court No. 7 watching the on a giant TV screen. Some members of the Hong Kong Society Concern group, which does not want helpers to gain permanent residency, voiced fears their social resources will be jeopardized. On the other hand, some 10 members from the League of Social Democrats and Association for the Advancement of Feminism supported the maids. - VVP, GMA News