Immigration law discriminates against maids, HK court rules
Source: Agencies |
October 1, 2011, Saturday
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Print Edition
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A Filipino maid in Hong Kong won the opening legal battle in her fight for permanent residency after a court ruled yesterday that an immigration provision excluding the city's hundreds of thousands of foreign maids was unconstitutional.
It was a major legal victory in a case that has divided the city with accusations of ethnic discrimination against the foreign maids, most of whom are from the Philippines or Indonesia.
Justice Johnson Lam, ruling in the Court of First Instance, said the immigration provision denying the maids the right to gain permanent residency after seven years - as other foreign residents can - was inconsistent with the Basic Law.
The government is likely to appeal the ruling.
The case was launched by Evangeline Banao Vallejos, a longtime foreign domestic helper who sought a judicial review after her bid for permanent residency was rejected.
Vallejos, who did not attend court because she was busy working, said "thank God" after learning the outcome, said Mark Daly, one of her lawyers.
The case has divided opinion in Hong Kong, with some arguing that immigration provisions barring maids from applying amounts to ethnic discrimination. The vast majority of the city's 292,000 foreign domestic helpers, most of them women, are from the Philippines or Indonesia, but some also come from Thailand, Nepal, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. About 95 percent of Hong Kong's population of 7.1 million are Chinese.
The maids are a big source of help to the middle and upper classes of Hong Kong, where it's commonplace for families to employ one or more to live with them, where they do household chores and look after children.
But many people complain that giving the maids permanent residency would result in an influx of their family members, which would put a strain on the densely populated city's housing, schools and other resources.
Several dozen people protested outside the courthouse against the maids and their supporters as the ruling was released.
At the end of last year, 117,000 of the city's foreign maids had been in Hong Kong for more than seven years, Lam's ruling noted, citing government figures.
Last year, about 120,000 of Hong Kong's foreign maids were from the Philippines, according to Philippine government figures. Indonesians account for much of the rest, but exact figures weren't available.
Two similar cases involving a total of five Filipino domestic helpers are set to go before the courts this month.
It was a major legal victory in a case that has divided the city with accusations of ethnic discrimination against the foreign maids, most of whom are from the Philippines or Indonesia.
Justice Johnson Lam, ruling in the Court of First Instance, said the immigration provision denying the maids the right to gain permanent residency after seven years - as other foreign residents can - was inconsistent with the Basic Law.
The government is likely to appeal the ruling.
The case was launched by Evangeline Banao Vallejos, a longtime foreign domestic helper who sought a judicial review after her bid for permanent residency was rejected.
Vallejos, who did not attend court because she was busy working, said "thank God" after learning the outcome, said Mark Daly, one of her lawyers.
The case has divided opinion in Hong Kong, with some arguing that immigration provisions barring maids from applying amounts to ethnic discrimination. The vast majority of the city's 292,000 foreign domestic helpers, most of them women, are from the Philippines or Indonesia, but some also come from Thailand, Nepal, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. About 95 percent of Hong Kong's population of 7.1 million are Chinese.
The maids are a big source of help to the middle and upper classes of Hong Kong, where it's commonplace for families to employ one or more to live with them, where they do household chores and look after children.
But many people complain that giving the maids permanent residency would result in an influx of their family members, which would put a strain on the densely populated city's housing, schools and other resources.
Several dozen people protested outside the courthouse against the maids and their supporters as the ruling was released.
At the end of last year, 117,000 of the city's foreign maids had been in Hong Kong for more than seven years, Lam's ruling noted, citing government figures.
Last year, about 120,000 of Hong Kong's foreign maids were from the Philippines, according to Philippine government figures. Indonesians account for much of the rest, but exact figures weren't available.
Two similar cases involving a total of five Filipino domestic helpers are set to go before the courts this month.
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