More foreign domestic workers apply for right of abode in HK

MANILA, Philippines - The number of foreign domestic helpers applying for right of abode in Hong Kong increased from an average of just one a month before the landmark permanent residency ruling last September to more than 200 the following month, The South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported.

In September last year, the Hong Kong High Court ruled that the exclusion of foreign domestic workers from a rule that allows foreigners to apply for the right to settle in the city after seven years of uninterrupted residency was unconstitutional.

The court ruled in favor of Evangeline Banao Vallejos, a Filipino domestic helper who has lived in Hong Kong for 25 years.

While the number is just a tiny fraction of the reported 125,000 helpers who have lived in Hong Kong for at least seven years, it is a significant rise that has caused some alarm among the local populace.

In November, a total of 334 applications were filed. Starry Lee Wai-king, vice-chair of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, said she was alarmed by the “astonishing” increase in applications.

But some quarters described as “just a scare tactic” the alarmist estimates that as many as 500,000 immigrants could flood into Hong Kong – computing that each domestic helper brought in a spouse and two children.

The government has suspended the processing of right of abode applications pending a final decision on its appeal against the ruling in favor of Vallejos. The appeal on the Vallejos case will be heard on Feb. 21. 

The number of applications for verification of eligibility for a permanent identity card for the months of October, November and December are 148, 334 and 149, respectively.

In August and September, before the residency ruling, the number was 16 applications a month.

Mark Daly, a human rights lawyer who represented the domestic helpers, said the number of applications filed in the past three months supported claims that the government’s estimate was “wildly exaggerated.”

Daly pointed out that the foreign domestic helpers are just seeking the right to apply for right of abode, not an automatic right to permanent residency.

He said the Immigration Department would determine who would be given permanent residence.

Eni Lestati of the Asian Migrants’ Coordinating Body said “it is proven that not many of us are so excited to be Hong Kong permanent residents.”

However, New People’s Party chair Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee said “the real threat will only come after the final court decision.”