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'Direct' survey was dismissed

Jimmy Cheung

The number of illegitimate children eligible to claim right of abode could be just 20,000, an unpublished government survey found.

But the figure was dismissed by some as 'unreliable' and was discarded in the official estimate of the impact of the migrant influx.

The Government has been accused of inflating the statistics after it said its survey found 520,000 children born out of wedlock were eligible to come to Hong Kong under the Court of Final Appeal ruling in January.

After constant challenges by legislators and academics at a meeting yesterday, Commissioner for Census and Statistics Frederick Ho Wing-huen revealed the findings of the other survey.

But he said the figure, reached after directly asking respondents if they had children born out of 'registered marriages', was unreliable.

He said it was a sensitive question and believed some respondents might be too embarrassed to tell the truth.

But Dr Wing Suen, of the School of Economics and Finance at the University of Hong Kong, criticised the statistics chief for being 'unprofessional'.

'The method of asking direct questions is normally quite credible. But you just discard the figures . . . This is unprofessional and indeed rare as far as statistical practices are concerned,' Dr Wing said.

Dr Francis Lui Ting-ming of the University of Science and Technology described some figures as doubtful.

When asked if the latest estimate could be trusted, Dr Lui said: 'I can't say it must be wrong. But part of it is scientific and some artistic. It is a mix of the two.'

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