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The tears are flowing again for pair split by bad timing

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Two-year-old Ching-ching sat outside her Fanling home in tears last month holding a pair of her mother's pyjamas as she waited for her to return from the mainland.

Today the reunion is over and Ching-ching, who won residency under a landmark ruling last year, will kiss her mother goodbye again.

Ching-ching's mother, Hui Mei-kwan, 29, does not know when she will see her daughter next as her permit to visit has expired and she must return to the mainland.

'She has been unhappy since I told her I would be leaving. She sometimes cries all night and refuses to go out to play,' Ms Hui said.

The single mother entered Hong Kong illegally in April 1997 to join her family, unaware that she was entitled to file an abode claim. By the time she did so in May 1999, it was too late.

The claim was rejected by the Court of Appeal on January 10 this year.

Ching-ching, who was born in March 2000, won right of abode under the ruling on three-year-old boy Chong Fung-yuen in July last year, which stated that a child born in Hong Kong has automatic right of abode, regardless of the parents' status.

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