Immigrants would flood in unless tough criteria were adopted, a judge warned yesterday. Mr Justice Wally Yeung Chun-kuen made the comment while rejecting Nepali Gam Bahadur Gurung's application for a judicial review of the Director of Immigration's decision to refuse him residency as a dependent of his wife. Mr Gurung, 42, unemployed, applied for the right of abode as a dependent shortly after he arrived as a visitor on October 27 last year. His wife, Man Kumari Gurung, 33, was born here while her father served as a Gurkha soldier. She moved back from Nepal in August last year. The applicant claimed his wife, who works as a cleaner earning $6,000 a month, could sponsor him. Senior government lawyer William Marshall told the Court of First Instance that the couple, who have five children in Nepal aged between five and 13, have to send $2,000 a month to Nepal and paid $1,500 rent a month for a Wan Chai flat. 'In terms of policy it cannot be acceptable that a sponsor and dependent can say that they will live under a piece of plastic and eat leftovers at mere survival level,' Mr Marshall said. 'That ignores the real risk of a burden on Hong Kong on the part of an uninvited guest.' Mr Justice Yeung ruled the director was entitled to conclude the income of the sponsor was not sufficient to maintain a reasonable, decent and acceptable living for them. 'It is worth pointing out that the duty of the director is an extremely onerous one,' he said. 'Unless the director adopted a stringent criteria for an alien to have rights to reside in Hong Kong, it would likely be flooded and burdened by a large number of immigrants.' He added: 'The director is under a duty to ensure the holder of a dependent visa would not impose a burden on residents and taxpayers of Hong Kong in terms of public and social services or diminishing their employment opportunities.'