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Patsy Moy

For the Lam family, it is the best of times, and the worst of times.

Lam Kam-ming, 20, is one of the thousands of mainlanders who yesterday lost their battle to stay in the SAR. He is now facing repatriation - but his six-year-old sister, Lam Ming-sing, who obtained right of abode back in 1999, can live happily with their parents in Hong Kong.

Both were staying in Hong Kong without permission prior to the handover - Kam-ming after overstaying a two-way permit, and Ming-sing after being sneaked across the border.

The difference was that Kam-ming was discovered by police during a routine check and sent back to the mainland. However, his sister was able to stay behind. She secured her right of abode after Court of Final Appeal rulings in January 1999.

If Kam-ming had managed to avoid detection beyond the handover he, too, would have had his residency status verified according to those rulings.

'I find it very unfair. The lesson that I have learned is: don't trust the Hong Kong Government. They are liars,' Kam-ming said.

After being sent back to the mainland in 1997, Kam-ming returned to the SAR on a two-way permit in the wake of the January rulings in a bid to lodge his claim for permanent residency.

'I have wasted so much time on waiting. I had quit school and lay idle at home most of the time because I cannot do anything in Hong Kong,' Kam-ming said.

'The Government's policy is so confusing and the officials simply did not live up to their promises. I feel very disappointed and helpless.'

But he vowed not to return to the mainland because he wanted to stay with his family. He said the Government was intent on splitting up families.

'My mother moved here a couple of years ago and my father is a permanent resident. I will be the only one left in China,' he said.

The 65-year-old retired father, Lam Chuen-hau, said he did not expect the fate of his children to be so different. 'I am heartbroken. I want my son to stay with us. How come the Government can split up families like that?' he said.

When asked what the future holds, Kam-ming said he had no idea: 'I do not have any dreams now. I don't know what my future will be, because probably I do not have a future.'

Kam-ming is not alone in his anger and confusion at the verdict.

Hundreds of fellow abode seekers were waiting outside the court when it ruled at about 10.30am. They were calm as they started reading a court handout of the verdict, but the mood turned to anger and fear when it dawned that the ruling had gone against most of them.

Some took sanctuary from the shock inside nearby St John's Cathedral.

Some wept, some cried, others screamed.

Father Franco Mella, who has been fighting for the mainlanders' rights, called on the abode seekers to stay calm.

One abode seeker, Wang Xinxiao, 24, burst into tears after finding out she and her other three siblings did not have the right to stay with their elderly parents.

'The SAR Government is cruel and unfair. It allowed Tam Nga-yin, who is only an adopted child, to stay, but not people like us who are the birth children of Hong Kong residents,' Ms Wang said. She was referring to Agnes Tam, the 15-year-old adopted girl who was granted the right to stay in the SAR in October.

Lo Po-lai, 24, who was one of the beneficiaries of yesterday's ruling, said she felt sorry for those who lost. 'I am happy my rights have finally been recognised. But years of legal battles have been agonising - I lost my freedom, I was not allowed to work or travel freely. But I feel very disappointed that the judgment could not benefit most people.

'I would like to call on those who lost their case today not to give up.

'They should continue to fight for their rights,' Ms Lo said.

Members of human rights groups such as the Justice and Peace Commission of Hong Kong Catholic Diocese, Hong Kong Human Rights Monitor and the Hong Kong Christian Institute tried to calm the crowd in St John's.

A meeting was held in the cathedral where lawyers explained the ruling.

Last night, hundreds of mainlanders and their families attended a forum at the Caritas centre in Kowloon to discuss further action.

By 10pm, the Social Welfare Department and Caritas had received more than 600 phone calls for counselling and inquiries from the mainlanders.



Best and worst of times in a tale of two children