4 Pinay maids wage legal battle for permanent HK residency

HONG KONG – At least four Filipino domestic workers who have been working here for more than 20 years have waged a legal battle for the Hong Kong government to grant them permanent residency.

The High Court is scheduled to hear one of the three petitions on Aug. 22, which was filed by Evangeline Vallejos, a domestic worker here since 1986.

The two other petitioners are Irene Domingo and her husband Daniel, who worked here as domestic workers from 1982 to 2007 and from 1985 to 2007, respectively. Two of their three children who were born here are already permanent residents.

Josephine Gutierrez, who had been working here as a domestic worker since 1991, also filed a similar petition.

The Court is set to hear the petition of the Domingos on Oct. 18 and of Gutierrez on Oct. 26.

In their petitions filed at the Court of First Instance last December, the Filipinos asked the Court to declare them as permanent residents of this city under the Basic Law.

The Basic Law, the city’s mini-constitution, states that permanent residents include non-Chinese nationals who have “ordinarily resided in Hong Kong for a continuous period of not less than seven years and have taken Hong Kong as their place of permanent residence.”

The Filipino domestic workers also asked the court to declare as unconstitutional the Immigration Ordinance that refuses permanent residency rights to domestic helpers.

Under the ordinance, “a person shall not be treated as ordinary resident in Hong Kong while employed as a domestic helper.”

The Filipinos also asked the court to declare that the Immigration Ordinance contravenes the Bill of Rights Ordinance that provides rights without distinction of race.

The Filipinos’ claims for right of abode have elicited widespread interest and even scare tactics among local residents.

The Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB), the city’s biggest pro-government party, estimated that 500,000 new residents could settle in Hong Kong if the judicial review favors the domestic helpers. The estimate was based on the assumption that each eligible domestic helper would bring his or her spouse and two children to the city.

Data from the immigration department here showed that there are 138,933 Filipino domestic workers who are earning at least HK$23,740 (P20,130). The figure accounts for 47.5 percent of the total foreign domestic helpers (FDH) population of 292,473 as of June. It is estimated that at least one-third of the total FDH population have worked here for more than seven years.

The Philippine consulate reported that there are 12,452 Filipino permanent residents in the former British colony, while there are around 5,000 holders of work permits and dependent visas as of last year.

DAB claimed that the unemployment rate could rise to 10 percent from 3.5 percent if domestic helpers would get residency status that would eventually allow them to apply for jobs as local minimum wage earners.

Foreign domestic helpers are excluded from the initial hourly minimum wage rate of $28 (P150) implemented last May.

Legislator Paul Tse earlier feared that a rush of domestic helpers with permanent residency would gravely affect the city’s welfare resources.

Legislator Regina Ip, meanwhile, said the Hong Kong government should seek an interpretation of the Basic Law from Beijing before the court rules on the domestic helpers’ petition.