HK may adjust its quota for mothers from the mainland
By Wang Qingchu |
February 4, 2012, Saturday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
HONG Kong's Secretary for Food & Health York Chow said yesterday that the city government is to review the need for an adjustment in the quota and policies regarding pregnant women from the Chinese mainland giving birth in Hong Kong.
Chow told reporters that the government will discuss the issue with the Hong Kong Hospital Authority and private hospitals over the next two months, Xinhua news agency said.
He said the government had cut the quota for non-local women giving birth in Hong Kong to 35,000 for 2012, to ease demand for obstetrics services.
"We can see that local mothers are giving birth more now, which is a very good sign, and more young people are getting married as well. This is very encouraging for Hong Kong. So we must reserve sufficient capacity for local parents," he said.
Chow said the government needs to adjust the quota every year and it is discussing the issue with mainland authorities to deter people from trying to bypass the birth-registration system.
According to statistics, about 88,000 babies were born in Hong Kong in 2010. Mothers from the mainland gave birth to about 41,000 of them, compared to 620 in 2001.
Mainland women have chosen to give birth in Hong Kong partly to circumvent the government's one-child policy and also to gain the right of abode in one of China's most developed and wealthiest cities. A broad provision in Hong Kong's Basic Law grants Hong Kong citizenship to any Chinese born there.
Chow's remarks came after a crackdown on unlicensed hostels for women from the mainland seeking to have their babies in the city.
The campaign is part of efforts to turn away non-local mothers-to-be to ease pressure on already strained medical resources.
Three hostels hidden in residential and office buildings were raided on Thursday, China News Service reported yesterday.
One apartment was found to have been divided into nine rooms and a large number of personal care products for newborns discovered. Two pregnant women who were suspected to be illegal immigrants were transferred to police.
Patrols and spot checks will be intensified to stamp out illegal accommodation targeted at expectant mothers from the mainland, Yu Tak-cheung, chief officer of the Home Affairs Department's licensing authority, was quoted by China News Service as saying.
On Wednesday, Hong Kong newspaper Apple Daily published a full-page advertisement accusing mainlanders of being "locusts" feeding on the city's public services.
"Hong Kong people have had enough!" the ad proclaimed in large Chinese characters beside a picture of a giant locust on a hill overlooking Hong Kong's skyscrapers and iconic harbor. "Stop the invasion of mainland mothers," it added.
The ad urged authorities to revise the law to ban mainland women from having their babies in Hong Kong.
Another local newspaper, Sky Post, quoted a pregnant Hong Kong woman as saying: "Hong Kong children have to compete with mainland children when they take vaccines, go to schools and even look for jobs in the future. The government is not dealing with the problem."
The newspaper said that some residents were calling mainland mothers "thieves" who were stealing their social resources.
A group calling itself "Hong Kong Local Force" has even written a song criticizing mainland women. Yesterday, a number of people gathered on Canton Road, a famous shopping street popular with mainland tourists, to sing the song to mainland visitors.
The song's lyrics included the lines: "Locusts you deserve a beating. You made chaos in buses, metro, restaurants, hotels and stores. Don't you have shame?"
The influx of mainland pregnant women has spawned an entire industry of agents shuttling Chinese mothers en masse across the border, hiding them in illegal accommodation before birth. Hong Kong authorities have set an annual limit on the number of non-local pregnant women hospitals can accept. However, many mainland women are now going to hospitals' emergency departments when they go into labor to get round the restrictions.
Meanwhile, taking their cue from the locust ad, people from various mainland cities have created their own online versions, voicing concern at the growing number of migrants.
The Shanghai, Beijing and Guangdong versions of the ad express concern over the number of non-local people coming to the city to share in its public services. However, ads circulating in Shenzhen and Chengdu are taking the opposite view, extending a warm welcome to people from outside the cities and inviting them to settle there.
Chow told reporters that the government will discuss the issue with the Hong Kong Hospital Authority and private hospitals over the next two months, Xinhua news agency said.
He said the government had cut the quota for non-local women giving birth in Hong Kong to 35,000 for 2012, to ease demand for obstetrics services.
"We can see that local mothers are giving birth more now, which is a very good sign, and more young people are getting married as well. This is very encouraging for Hong Kong. So we must reserve sufficient capacity for local parents," he said.
Chow said the government needs to adjust the quota every year and it is discussing the issue with mainland authorities to deter people from trying to bypass the birth-registration system.
According to statistics, about 88,000 babies were born in Hong Kong in 2010. Mothers from the mainland gave birth to about 41,000 of them, compared to 620 in 2001.
Mainland women have chosen to give birth in Hong Kong partly to circumvent the government's one-child policy and also to gain the right of abode in one of China's most developed and wealthiest cities. A broad provision in Hong Kong's Basic Law grants Hong Kong citizenship to any Chinese born there.
Chow's remarks came after a crackdown on unlicensed hostels for women from the mainland seeking to have their babies in the city.
The campaign is part of efforts to turn away non-local mothers-to-be to ease pressure on already strained medical resources.
Three hostels hidden in residential and office buildings were raided on Thursday, China News Service reported yesterday.
One apartment was found to have been divided into nine rooms and a large number of personal care products for newborns discovered. Two pregnant women who were suspected to be illegal immigrants were transferred to police.
Patrols and spot checks will be intensified to stamp out illegal accommodation targeted at expectant mothers from the mainland, Yu Tak-cheung, chief officer of the Home Affairs Department's licensing authority, was quoted by China News Service as saying.
On Wednesday, Hong Kong newspaper Apple Daily published a full-page advertisement accusing mainlanders of being "locusts" feeding on the city's public services.
"Hong Kong people have had enough!" the ad proclaimed in large Chinese characters beside a picture of a giant locust on a hill overlooking Hong Kong's skyscrapers and iconic harbor. "Stop the invasion of mainland mothers," it added.
The ad urged authorities to revise the law to ban mainland women from having their babies in Hong Kong.
Another local newspaper, Sky Post, quoted a pregnant Hong Kong woman as saying: "Hong Kong children have to compete with mainland children when they take vaccines, go to schools and even look for jobs in the future. The government is not dealing with the problem."
The newspaper said that some residents were calling mainland mothers "thieves" who were stealing their social resources.
A group calling itself "Hong Kong Local Force" has even written a song criticizing mainland women. Yesterday, a number of people gathered on Canton Road, a famous shopping street popular with mainland tourists, to sing the song to mainland visitors.
The song's lyrics included the lines: "Locusts you deserve a beating. You made chaos in buses, metro, restaurants, hotels and stores. Don't you have shame?"
The influx of mainland pregnant women has spawned an entire industry of agents shuttling Chinese mothers en masse across the border, hiding them in illegal accommodation before birth. Hong Kong authorities have set an annual limit on the number of non-local pregnant women hospitals can accept. However, many mainland women are now going to hospitals' emergency departments when they go into labor to get round the restrictions.
Meanwhile, taking their cue from the locust ad, people from various mainland cities have created their own online versions, voicing concern at the growing number of migrants.
The Shanghai, Beijing and Guangdong versions of the ad express concern over the number of non-local people coming to the city to share in its public services. However, ads circulating in Shenzhen and Chengdu are taking the opposite view, extending a warm welcome to people from outside the cities and inviting them to settle there.
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