Many domestic helpers in HK applying for residency

More foreign domestic workers in Hong Kong are applying for permanent residency, raising an alert in the government as it lost again Wednesday to the court’s landmark decision on the case of Filipina Evangeline Vallejos. According to a report from Hong Kong daily “The Standard", the number of right-of-abode applications from domestic workers has jumped from one a month to an average of 16 or 17. “I was told there were 20 just yesterday," Secretary for Security Ambrose Lee Siu-kwong revealed, hours after the Court of First Instance thumbed down a government request for a stay on the decision to allow Vallejos to apply for permanent residency. Judge Johnson Lam Man-hon ordered that Vallejos’ case be taken to the Registration of Persons Tribunal for a decision in line with his ruling last Sept. 30, “The Standard" disclosed. While its tactics to put a hold on processing the applications do not clash against the rule of law, Lam warned the government that its moves might result to judicial reviews by dissatisfied applicants. Government moves According to “The Standard," the Hong Kong government “is still working on an appeal against the September ruling." Government counsel David Pannick has also asked for a written record that Wednesday’s decision on Vallejos’ case “applied only to her and did not impose an obligation on the government to take action in future cases of right-of abode applicants." Meanwhile, New People’s Party chairperson and former secretary for security Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee called Lam’s ruling “ambiguous" and said it will put the Immigration Department under great stress. However, Civic Party leader Alan Leong Kah-hit said the court has affirmed that the Immigration Department can decide whether to allow individual applications. ‘Unrealistic’ estimates On the other hand, the Filipina’s senior counsel, Gladys Li Chi-hei, said the only thing holding Vallejos’ case back at the Registration of Persons Tribunal is the block on applications in the Immigration Ordinance. The Filipina, who has been in Hong Kong since 1986, is “100 percent" likely to get permanent residency, her solicitor Mark Daly said, adding that they have filed an affidavit last Oct. 21. The affidavit cited expert opinion that the government’s estimates of some 400, 000 helpers applying for right-to-abode “are totally unrealistic" and “is simply not possible." Statistics show that, as of June, there are about 290, 000 foreign domestic workers in Hong Kong. Filipino domestic workers are the second largest group in this Chinese special administrative region, with 139,000. Meanwhile, Hong Kong topped the list of destinations for domestic workers last year, according to data from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration. - GMA News