A mystery surrounds the future of any illegal immigrant children found in Hong Kong after the handover who have the right to permanent residency under the Basic Law.
Guangdong Public Security Bureau said yesterday it would act next week to stem the flood of juvenile illegal immigrants, many of whom risked their lives in the ways they entered Hong Kong.
More than 480 have surrendered themselves to the Immigration Department this month - marking a fivefold increase since in four months.
Authorities both sides of the border say they will continue to repatriate those caught sneaking in.
But it is unclear whether children with the right to permanent residency after July 1 will be sent back if apprehended if they have entered the territory illegally beforehand.
A Hong Kong security source said: 'Children who have the post-handover's permanent residency in the territory would have the right to stay after July 1.
'But the legal position of whether children who have sneaked in and hidden in the territory should be sent back to the mainland after July 1 is not clear. I would imagine the post-handover government would have to review the situation of whether having a right to stay is equivalent to a right to jump the queue.' More than 30,000 mainland children now in China are estimated to be entitled to enter the territory, by dint of having parents in Hong Kong.
