The grown-up mainland children of Hong Kong parents will be allowed to apply to live in the city from April under a new immigration arrangement announced yesterday.
Until now, they have been prevented from doing so by controversial right of abode laws.
The new policy, unveiled by Secretary for Security Ambrose Lee Siu-kwong in Beijing, effectively brings to an end the decade-long right of abode saga, which has split families, created a series of landmark legal rulings and sparked violent protests.
Right of abode campaigners said the new arrangement had come too late for many, as their parents had died in the intervening years. They also called for an apology from Hong Kong officials who blocked so many from having right of abode for so long.
The clamp on children of Hongkongers born on the mainland was imposed amid top-level government concerns that if they were allowed in, the city would be swamped.
However, now, as the 150-a-day quota under the existing one-way permit system is regularly not filled and the lure of Hong Kong is not so great as the mainland prospers, observers wonder how many people will apply under the new rules.