In minority view, senior justice seeks discretion in favour of immigrants
One of the city's most senior judges yesterday renewed a call for the government to grant residency to right-of-abode seekers still in the city.
Mr Justice Kemal Bokhary, a permanent judge of the Court of Final Appeal, made the suggestion in a minority judgment appended to a case concerning several outstanding claims by abode seekers.
'With the last of these sad cases in sight,' Mr Justice Bokhary wrote, 'I cannot help wondering what could be more in keeping with the true spirit of reunification - now in its 10th year - than a humanitarian exercise of executive discretion in favour of the abode seekers still here in this city of, after all, immigrants.'
In response to Mr Justice Bokhary's comment, a spokesman for the Immigration Department last night said a judgment of the Court of Final Appeal in January 2002 established a clear legal basis for the settlement of right-of-abode cases. He said the government would continue to follow the judgment.
He added that right-of-abode claimants who did not benefit from the judgment must return to the mainland. If they wished to return to Hong Kong to settle, they must apply to the relevant mainland authorities for a one-way permit.
The seven claims dealt with by the court yesterday stemmed from the controversial 2002 judgment, in which the claims of several thousand abode seekers were refused.