Hong Kong court overturns maid residency ruling

Foreign maids gather in Central, business district in Hong Kong. AP photo/Kin Cheung

Hong Kong – Hong Kong’s court of appeal on Wednesday overturned 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’s 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.

Most are eligible to apply for permanent residency, granting them additional rights and access to government services, once they have lived in the city for at least seven years.

“What makes us different from others? We work very hard, we support our families too,” Lestari said.

“We are bound by Hong Kong immigration policies and yet they use it to exclude us, this is clear discrimination.” –Agence France-Presse