LAST week's decision to increase the daily quota of migrants from China will do little to reunite many of the families who should benefit, say spouses waiting to join their partners in Hong Kong.
They say their future remains in the hands of corrupt mainland officials, who allow those who can pay big bribes to jump the queue.
Hong Kong authorities are being pressed to fight for a say in the allocation of quotas to ensure impartiality.
From July 1, Hong Kong is increasing the daily quota of one-way permits from 105 to 150, with 15 extra places going to spouses separated from their Hong Kong partners for more than 10 years, and 30 for children who, under the Basic Law, will have the right of abode in the territory after 1997.
Half an hour's drive from the Lowu border crossing, a village in Shenzhen is temporary home to many women and children waiting to be reunited with husbands and fathers in Hong Kong.
Many four-storey apartments in Dongxin Ridge have been either bought or rented by Hong Kong men for their separated families. Every day, dozens of men cross the border to see them and take them food and other necessities.
One 32-year-old woman, married to Hong Kong man Tse Man-fai, 48, said: 'No matter how many times the Hong Kong Government announces an increase in quotas, we do not benefit from it.' She has sought a one-way permit from the Public Security Bureau in her hometown of Huidong about 10 times in the past eight years, but has always been turned away with the same answer: 'There are many people waiting to go to Hong Kong. You had better try next time. We have no application forms available.' Three years ago, Mrs Tse tried to send her son, then aged five, to Hong Kong.