The rights of foreign domestic workers is an emotive issue, stirring heated debate whenever it is raised. With a judicial review pending on the government's refusal to grant maids permanent residency, the temperature is rising. Contentions, backed up by figures, are being churned out by interest groups, fanning flames and prompting accusations of scaremongering. It is an important matter, but not one that can be decided on the streets. Instead, it is for judges to rule on fairly in accordance with the law.

Most foreigners are entitled to become permanent residents after living in Hong Kong continuously for seven years. That is stipulated in the Basic law, but the supplementary legislation of the Immigration Ordinance denies that right to domestic helpers. Lawyers representing two maids living here since 1980 who were refused permanent identity cards have challenged the law. With more than 250,000 helpers here, about half of them resident for seven years or more, according to government estimates, there is much at stake for all sides.

Groups like the pro-government Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong are lobbying voters, presumably in the hope of whipping up a storm of objections that can shape the public mood. The DAB released figures this week contending that giving maids permanent residence would double the unemployment rate and strain financial and public housing and health care resources. Annual social spending would be pushed up by HK$25 billion, it warned, basing projections on the hundreds of thousands of relatives of maids authorities claim would move here. Permanent residency would surely also mean that employers would be liable to pay not the domestic helpers' contract wage, but a salary based on the HK$28-an-hour minimum rate. The general employment market would be altered, with helpers being able to apply for better-paid jobs.