RULING
[PHOTO - Foreign
maids gather in Central, business district in Hong Kong. AP
photo/Kin Cheung]
HONG KONG (AFP), MARCH 29, 2012
(BULLETIN) Hong Kong's court of appeals overturned Wednesday a
landmark ruling that opened the door for thousands of foreign maids to claim
residency in the southern Chinese city.
"It must be up to the sovereign authority to decide the extent to which the
status of permanent resident should be conceded to foreign nationals," Judge
Andrew Cheung wrote in a 66-page judgment accepting the government's appeal.
The High Court ruled on Sept. 30 last year that Philippine domestic worker
Evangeline Banao Vallejos had the right to request permanent residency status,
something that had been denied to foreign maids until then.
But the government argued that the authorities had discretionary power to
decide who was eligible for residency, rejecting arguments that restrictions on
maids were unconstitutional and discriminatory.
The three-judge panel on the court of appeal unanimously accepted that
argument, saying the High Court could not override the government's authority to
decide who can live in the city and who cannot.
The decision will come as a major blow to tens of thousands of maids who
could have been eligible for residency status if the Vallejos case had been
established in law.
"It is a fundamental principle in international law that a sovereign state
has the power to admit, exclude, and expel aliens," Cheung wrote.
Vallejos' lawyers said they would take the case – the first of its kind in
Asia – all the way to the Court of Final Appeal, Hong Kong's highest court.
"The interpretation of the law creates a second-class citizen," counsel Mark
Daly told AFP. "We will continue on to the Court of Final Appeal until we get
justice."
Rights advocates said the ruling sent the wrong message to other Asian
nations that relied on poorly paid maids from less wealthy countries to toil at
jobs locals no longer wanted to do.
"It's not just about staying in Hong Kong – we don't want to be excluded,"
Asian Migrants' Coordinating Body spokeswoman Eni Lestari said outside court.
The group represents over 10,000 foreign maids in Hong Kong, a glittering
financial and banking center of some seven million people, including almost
300,000 foreign domestic helpers mainly from Indonesia and the Philippines.
Lestari said foreign maids should not be treated any differently to other
foreigners who flock to the semi-autonomous former British colony to find work
as lawyers, bankers, accountants and managers.
EARLIER NEWS FROM THE INQUIRER
Hong Kong appeals maids' right to residency 2:15
am | Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012
[PHOTO - Foreign maids gather in Central, business district in Hong
Kong Saturday, Oct. 1, 2011. A Filipino maid in Hong Kong won the opening legal
battle in her fight for permanent residency after a court ruled Friday that an
immigration provision excluding the city's hundreds of thousands of foreign
maids was unconstitutional. The decision has polarized opinions in Hong Kong and
has also prompted different reactions among maids themselves. AP photo/Kin Cheung]
HONG KONG—Hong Kong's government on Tuesday launched an appeal against a
landmark court ruling which grants thousands of foreign maids the right to seek
permanent residency in this southern banking hub.
Government counsel David Pannick told the Court of Appeal the original ruling
was mistaken as it restricted the authorities' ability to determine who can
permanently reside in Hong Kong and who cannot.
The High Court ruling of September 30 gave Filipino domestic worker
Evangeline Banao Vallejos the right to request permanent residency status,
something that had been denied to foreign maids until then.
"It is our respectful submission that (this) decision was wrong as a matter
of law," said Pannick at the outset of the hearing.
He said the city authorities should be given some discretionary power to
decide who was eligible for residency, rejecting arguments that restrictions on
maids were unconstitutional and discriminatory.
"There is no undermining of the rule of law if the legislature enjoys a
certain margin of discretion," he told the court.
Most foreigners can apply to stay in Hong Kong after seven years of
uninterrupted residency, gaining access to voting rights, benefits such as
public housing and the right to live in the Chinese city without a work visa.
But that right had been denied to the city's 292,000 foreign maids, mostly
from the Philippines and Indonesia, until Vallejos won her challenge last year.
High Court Judge Johnson Lam ruled the law unconstitutional in a decision
that sharply divided opinion in the city of seven million people.
Officials warned it could open the floodgates to hundreds of thousands of
residency requests from maids, some of whom have lived in the city for decades
without access to residency status.
Vallejos' lawyer, Mark Daly, said the 59-year-old mother of five had yet to
be granted permanent residency due to the ongoing legal dispute. She has lived
in Hong Kong since 1986.
Filipino Migrant Workers Union vice chair Eman Villanueva said the government
was entitled to appeal but accused it of wanting to discriminate against foreign
domestic workers.
"On our part, it's disappointing not because the government is appealing but
from the beginning they expressively said that foreign domestic helpers should
not be given the same right," he told Agence France-Presse outside the court.
A small group of people protested at the court against the extension of
residency rights to domestic workers. The hearing has been scheduled to run
until Thursday. AFP
Chief News Editor: Sol
Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2012 by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE
NEWS ONLINE
All rights reserved
PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS
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