source: wenweipo
translated by cici@Asianeu

Ambrose Lee said "over-age children" applications do not affect any one way permit application orders


Before November 1 2001, Mainland allows children of Hong Kong citizens under 14 years of age apply for one-way permit to Hong Kong and "over-aged children" can only come to Hong Kong through other channels, such as Admission of Talents Scheme or the Investment Immigration Program. Therefore, there are still over ten thousands of "over-aged children" unable to come to Hong Kong. In response to demands of family reunification and a consultation with Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government, the Central Government announced yesterday that starting April 1 this year, it had agreed to loosen provisions to allow for an orderly group of mainland children of Hong Kong citizens to come to Hong Kong, in which Mainland Chinese children of at least 14 years of age or over, dubbed "over-age children", can apply for one way permit to Hong Kong for settlement. For parents of "over-age children" to obtain Hong Kong identity cards on or before December 31st 1979, their children will be among the first group coming to Hong Kong as early as the end of this year.

Hong Kong Secretary for Security Ambrose Lee met with reporters yesterday in Beijing saying that the Central Government had accepted Hong Kong SARS Government advocacy to allow "over-aged children" to Hong Kong for family reunion. He said the applicants may apply in batches, in sequence, to the local public security organizations, department of immigration, at county level or above, for a fair, equitable, objective and transparent application system. As to when to accept applications for second batch, Ambrose Lee said the second batch of applications will be processed after the first, and will depend on the capacity of the mainland public security authorities. To obtain a satisfactory solution for "over-aged children" to come to Hong Kong, Ambrose Lee sincerely thanked the Central Government and Mainland authorities.

Wong Kwok-kin, Legislative Council Federation of Trade Unions, welcomed the policy, and believed the whole Hong Kong community will benefit. He explained that aging problem becoming increasingly serious. Since the majority of "over-age children" fell into the age group of 20 to 40-years-old, he believed they could become a "new force", bring balance to population structure for Hong Kong.

Zhong JianHua, Assistant Professor of Department of Applied Social Sciences from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, said that the new policy can encourage family reunion, but it would be easier for children to adopt Hong Kong life if they come to Hong Kong at the age of receiving education because children with older age will have a more difficult time adjusting to life due to career qualifications, skills and career orientation. Hong Kong authorities should allocate more resources, particularly to increase quota in Employees Retraining Board and loosen criteria in public housing eligibility.

Labour and Welfare Bureau said that government departments had always provide services for the new arrivals to facilitate their integration into the community to adapt to new environment as early as possible and related services were coordinated by the Home Affairs Department, in addition to Social Welfare Department increasing cooperation in social services.