Rights activists have accused the city's biggest pro-government party of scaremongering as the government prepares to face a judicial review of its refusal to grant permanent residency to foreign domestics.
The issue was raised after the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) yesterday released figures which said the city's unemployment rate could rise to 10 from 3.5 per cent if these rights were granted.
A rights group rejected this, saying the DAB's warning recalled tactics used to oppose the 1999 right-of-abode ruling.
The DAB's projection is based on a government estimate that 500,000 people could settle in Hong Kong if the judicial review, to start on August 22, leads to domestic workers being granted permanent residence. It also warns it would lead to an extra HK$25 billion a year on social spending.
Law Yuk-kai, director of the Hong Kong Human Rights Monitor, said the figures recalled the doomsday scenario of 1.67 million mainlanders moving to Hong Kong, which was made after the Court of Final Appeal's right of abode ruling in January 1999. The court granted right of abode to Chinese citizens born outside the city if one parent was a permanent resident.
After officials said 13 estates with more than 4,000 flats each would have to be built every year, a standing committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) overturned the ruling in June 1999.