HK judges overturn ruling in maids case
Source: Agencies |
March 29, 2012, Thursday
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Print Edition
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A LANDMARK ruling that would have let foreign maids gain permanent residency in Hong Kong was overturned on appeal yesterday in the latest twist for a case that has divided the city.
A three-member panel of High Court judges overturned a September lower court ruling that would have allowed a Filipino maid to apply to settle permanently in Hong Kong after living in the southern Chinese city for at least seven years, as other foreign residents can.
They unanimously rejected arguments by the maid's lawyers that an immigration provision barring domestic workers from permanent residency was unconstitutional.
Lawyers for the maid said they would take the case to Hong Kong's top court.
The case has split the city, home to nearly 300,000 maids from mainly southeast Asian countries.
Some argue that barring maids from applying for residency amounts to ethnic discrimination. But other groups have raised fears that the case would result in a massive influx of maids' family members arriving in Hong Kong, straining the densely populated city's social services and health and education systems. Supporters of the maids say those fears are overblown.
Evangeline Banao Vallejos, a Filipino woman who has worked as a maid in Hong Kong since 1986, launched the case after her bid for permanent residency was rejected.
Government lawyers argued in their appeal that the September ruling was wrong because it placed limits on lawmakers' ability to decide who is eligible to settle in Hong Kong permanently.
"A foreign domestic helper's stay in Hong Kong is for a very special, limited purpose," which is to do a job that cannot be filled by local workers, High Court Chief Justice Andrew Cheung said in the panel's written ruling.
"Hence, their stays in Hong Kong are highly regulated so as to ensure that they are here to fulfill the special, limited purpose for which they have been allowed to come here in the first place, and no more."
Mark Daly, a member of Vallejos' legal team, said: "The law shouldn't be interpreted to effectively create second-class citizens. We'll continue to fight for justice until the end."
At the end of 2010, 117,000 foreign maids had been in Hong Kong for more than seven years.
A three-member panel of High Court judges overturned a September lower court ruling that would have allowed a Filipino maid to apply to settle permanently in Hong Kong after living in the southern Chinese city for at least seven years, as other foreign residents can.
They unanimously rejected arguments by the maid's lawyers that an immigration provision barring domestic workers from permanent residency was unconstitutional.
Lawyers for the maid said they would take the case to Hong Kong's top court.
The case has split the city, home to nearly 300,000 maids from mainly southeast Asian countries.
Some argue that barring maids from applying for residency amounts to ethnic discrimination. But other groups have raised fears that the case would result in a massive influx of maids' family members arriving in Hong Kong, straining the densely populated city's social services and health and education systems. Supporters of the maids say those fears are overblown.
Evangeline Banao Vallejos, a Filipino woman who has worked as a maid in Hong Kong since 1986, launched the case after her bid for permanent residency was rejected.
Government lawyers argued in their appeal that the September ruling was wrong because it placed limits on lawmakers' ability to decide who is eligible to settle in Hong Kong permanently.
"A foreign domestic helper's stay in Hong Kong is for a very special, limited purpose," which is to do a job that cannot be filled by local workers, High Court Chief Justice Andrew Cheung said in the panel's written ruling.
"Hence, their stays in Hong Kong are highly regulated so as to ensure that they are here to fulfill the special, limited purpose for which they have been allowed to come here in the first place, and no more."
Mark Daly, a member of Vallejos' legal team, said: "The law shouldn't be interpreted to effectively create second-class citizens. We'll continue to fight for justice until the end."
At the end of 2010, 117,000 foreign maids had been in Hong Kong for more than seven years.
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