Hong Kong Judges Bar Mainland Adoptees

Three mainland Chinese children adopted by Hong Kong parents have no right to live here, the territory’s highest court ruled Friday in its latest word on the troublesome issue of residency.

The Court of Final Appeal sided with the Hong Kong government, which is intent on tightly controlling immigration from the mainland. But in a separate case, the justices went against Hong Kong and said a young boy born here to a mainland mother could stay.

The ruling on the adoptees left 14-year-old Tam Nga-yin facing deportation. Her devastated mother started wailing and shouting outside the court after the judgment was delivered.

“The Hong Kong government has cheated me,” Man Yuet-kwai said. “If they try to separate me from my daughter, I won’t let them. There’s no justice at all.”

Hong Kong resident Man adopted Tam as a 3-month-old orphan and lived with her in mainland China for almost a decade before they came to Hong Kong five years ago. Man said she exhausted all legal channels before Friday’s ruling.

Chief Justice Andrew Li and four other justices said the section of Hong Kong’s mini-constitution, known as the Basic Law, that deals with residency for the children of Hong Kong people “refers only to natural children” and won’t work for those adopted from China.

Justice Kemal Bokhary disagreed, writing that adoptive children could be included.

The five justices were unanimous in ruling that 3-year-old Chong Fung-yuen, born here to a visiting mother from the mainland, has the automatic right of abode.

The Basic Law clearly spells this out, the justices said, rejecting the government’s warnings that more mainland women would be encouraged to give birth in Hong Kong.

The justices noted that Immigration Department figures showed only about 555 children were born in such circumstances each year since the hand-over from Britain on July 1, 1997.

Chong has been living here with his father. His mother returned to the mainland.

Deputy Secretary for Security Timothy Tong said the government would respect the court’s decision, but he added that Hong Kong and mainland authorities will cooperate to try to prevent pregnant women from coming here illegally to give birth.