After 15 years of visa runs, a disabled boy's mother may not return

Yang Peiru has lived in Hong Kong for the past 15 years to look after her mentally disabled son, crossing the border to the mainland every three months to renew her visa.

But the mainland-born 57-year-old, who holds an Argentinian passport, has no idea whether she will be allowed to return next time she seeks a visa in January.

After her last trip, immigration officers told her she had been doing it for too long and might not be allowed to continue.

Now Yang, who has tried several times but failed to obtain residency in Hong Kong, is seeking a judicial review of the most recent refusal, in July, in which the office of Director of Immigration Eric Chan Kwok-ki rejected her appeal to stay on humanitarian grounds.

Her Hong Kong-born son, who suffers from epileptic seizures due to a lack of oxygen at birth, also has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and has difficulty reading.

"It's not an option to take him back to Argentina, because he has been treated since birth in Hong Kong," Yang said.

The boy's father, a mainland passport holder, disappeared before he was born, and as an Argentine passport holder Yang could not stay on in the mainland. So she came to Hong Kong in 1999 to give birth.