Source / Courtesy: Bloomberg
Hong Kong’s policy of denying permanent-residence rights to foreign maids is being challenged as unconstitutional, stoking public debate over ethnic discrimination in the Chinese city.
Evangeline Banao Vallejos, a domestic helper from the Philippines who has lived in Hong Kong since 1986, asked the Court of First Instance today to rule that an immigration law, which deems imported domestic helpers ineligible for rights such as voting and setting up a business, contradicts Hong Kong’s constitution, the Basic Law.
A victory for Vallejos would open the door for Hong Kong’s 300,000 foreign maids to apply for permanent residency after seven years working in the city, something at least three political parties in Hong Kong have said would strain health care, education and public housing resources. Hong Kong’s population is 95 percent ethnic Chinese, according to the most recent census data from 2006.
“The issue is not whether to give them permanent residence, the issue is whether they should be denied the right that is given to other non-Chinese nationals,” Vallejos’ lawyer Gladys Li told Judge Johnson Lam today.
Categories: Hong Kong