Schools are being asked by a legislator to ignore the Government and allocate places to 100 mainland children being denied an education while they await the outcome of their right of abode applications.
In a separate move by children's rights activists, all 450,000 secondary school students in the SAR have been asked to sign petitions in support of the mainlanders' schooling.
The Government has allowed the children to stay in Hong Kong while their applications are dealt with, but at the same time has refused them the right to go to school. Some have lived in Hong Kong for as long as five years.
The campaigners say the ban on schooling is in breach of an international convention on children's rights.
The Society for Community Organisation, which estimates there are 100 mainland children aged from three to 15 barred from school, has successfully contacted about half of them.
This list will be submitted on Saturday to education and security officials who will be asked to explain the bans to legislators handling the complaints of parents.
The Security Bureau said again yesterday that lifting the ban on the children, who are either overstayers or illegal immigrants, would send a message that the Government had softened its stance on immigration offenders.
