FATHER OF THREE and university lecturer Fernando Cheung Chiu-hung is one of the people in Hong Kong who has spoken out in support of mainlanders seeking Hong Kong residency, as someone who has always believed in the right
of mainlanders with parents in Hong Kong to be given right of abode here. But when he heard about the arson at Immigration Tower on Wednesday, he knew that all his efforts in speaking out at public forums were likely to have been a waste of time.
That night he could not sleep either, shocked by the tragedy and sorry for those injured. 'It will be very hard for people to be willing to listen to voices of the mainlanders and their grievances now. Public attention will be shifted away from this discriminatory policy.'
His own background helped spur him into expressing support for abode seekers in their long campaign for residency rights. Born in Macau, he moved to Hong Kong at the age of seven and had lived here until he went to the United States to study. His three sons were born in the US, and automatically became Hong Kong residents.
Mr Cheung, who teaches in the Department of Applied Social Studies at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, says he and many others who support the abode seekers now find themselves in an even more marginalised position than before the arson attack.
Lawyers representing the thousands of claimants have voiced concern that sympathy is drying up for the mainland children of Hong Kong people who have continued to arrive, even after Beijing's re-interpretation of the Basic Law.