Mainland women gatecrashing Hong Kong’s maternity wards, 3 years after CY Leung’s ‘zero-quota’ policy
Despite the ‘zero-quota’ policy having been in effect for three years, some 800 mainland women are still giving birth in Hong Kong hospitals each year
Three years after Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying announced a “zero-quota” policy to ban mainland women from having babies in Hong Kong, there are still about 800 cross-border births every year.
These babies were delivered by mainland women who gatecrashed the city’s emergency wards, almost half at overcrowded public hospitals, at late stages of pregnancy in order to obtain right of abode for the child.
While the issue has renewed debate on whether the government should amend the laws to plug the loophole, a demography expert warned of deepening anti-mainland sentiment if the government did not take steps to plan for the integration of these cross-border children.
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“Hong Kong is now filled with anti-mainland sentiments. If these groups of children cannot be integrated into the society, the cross-border conflicts will only get worse,” Paul Yip Siu-fai, a demography specialist at the University of Hong Kong, said.
Yip said the government should estimate how many of these children would return to Hong Kong, and there should be sufficient support for them to blend into society.