Chief Executive-elect Leung Chun-ying's proposed zero quota, designed to stop mainland birth tourism, is likely to face fewer legal challenges than other measures to deal with the issue, experts said.
Leung said private hospitals in the city should stop admitting pregnant mainlanders without Hong Kong husbands in 2013. The babies of those who made it to Hong Kong to give birth, despite the 'zero' quota, would 'very likely' not gain residency, he said.
Huen Wong, former president of the Law Society of Hong Kong, and lawmaker and barrister Alan Leong Kah-kit said the easiest way to handle the problem would be to stop issuing delivery booking certificates to mainlanders. That's because pregnant mainlanders coming into the city would be declined entry at the border if they could not present the certificate, which is issued by the Department of Health.
Wong said Leung's measure would be the least likely to trigger a court case and was possibly enough to have an impact on the number of mainlanders coming to give birth.
But the ban would not solve the issue of right of abode for children born in the city to mainland mothers.
Speaking on an RTHK programme yesterday, Leung said he would not roll out his concrete plan to tackle the right-of- abode issue yet. But, he said, 'I will definitely work on it when I take up the position' - meaning after July 1.
He noted that some lawmakers had submitted private bills to the Legislative Council to amend the Immigration Ordinance. 'Of course, I cannot do it now ... but the chief executive should approve the private bills,' he said.