Filipino maid challenges Hong Kong legal system over residency laws

Hong Kong – A Filipino maid is challenging Hong Kong’s immigration laws in a bid to win the right to citizenship, a news report said Sunday.

Evangeline Banao Vallejos filed a writ to the Court of First Instance seeking a review of the decision by authorities not to grant her permanent residency status, the Sunday Morning Post said.

If she is successful, it could open the floodgates to thousands of long-term foreign maids in Hong Kong who also could apply for permanent residency.

Vallejos has lived and worked in Hong Kong as a domestic helper for 24 years.

Under Hong Kong law, non-Chinese people are entitled to permanent residency if they have ‘ordinarily resided’ in Hong Kong for a continuous period of seven years.

However, the Immigration Ordinance specifically excludes foreign domestic helpers from being treated as being ‘ordinarily’ resident.

Human rights law firm Barnes and Daly, which is acting for Vallejos, argued this section of the law is discriminatory and contrary to the Basic Law, Hong Kong’s mini-constitution, adopted when the territory was handed back to China after more than 150 years of British colonial rule.

The newspaper said two other similar applications for judicial reviews were expected to be filed later this week.

Hong Kong is home to more than 220,000 live-in domestic helpers from such countries as the Philippines, Indonesia and Sri-Lanka, who earn a government-set minimum wage equivalent to about 460 US dollars a month.

This group is also excluded from a minimum wage law that was passed in July.