II gets to stay with disabled husband
AN illegal immigrant will be allowed to stay in Hong Kong to look after her paraplegic husband who is living in a ''converted pig shed'' on a Fanling farm.
Pang Kin-sun, 32, was delighted with the result, saying that he really needed his wife Chung Wan-lam to take care of him.
Chung, 30, is serving a 15-month jail sentence after pleading guilty on October 23 last year to remaining in Hong Kong illegally and using a false identity. She is due to be released on Monday.
Her counsel Philip Dykes yesterday informed the Chief Justice Sir Ti Liang Yang that the Director of Immigration was making an order to enable Chung, upon the completion of her prison term, to stay in Hong Kong on the grounds that her husband needed constant care and attention.
He also withdrew Chung's appeal against sentence.
Chung was arrested last October in a Mongkok nightclub where she worked as a waitress.
She told police that she had bought an identity card for $5,000 before coming to Hong Kong on September 16 last year.
It was not the first time she had sneaked into Hong Kong.
Chung had been repatriated once in June last year and according to her, on both occasions that she remained in Hong Kong illegally, her husband refused to let her stay with him.
The couple met in 1988 and married last August. In November 1990 Mr Pang was involved in a motorcycle crash in China. He came to Hong Kong last year for further surgery to his spine.
In her affidavit, Chung stated that her husband was living on social assistance of $2,000 a month in Fanling.
She appealed against her sentence earlier this year but the application was dismissed.
On June 16, she applied to the Immigration Department for permission to stay in Hong Kong on compassionate grounds because her husband needed her to look after him.
After the hearing Mr Pang said government officials had visited him and he hoped to be rehoused.
He said from his Fanling home last night that he was relieved his wife was allowed to stay and take care of him.
He now lives in an 80 square foot squatter hut built on a deserted pig farm, which is often flooded as it is located in a low-lying area.
He also hopes that the Government could arrange public housing for them as soon as possible so they could live in a better environment.
While his wife was detained, Mr Pang had to look to his cousin or neighbours to prepare meals and run chores for him.
''Life is unbearable as I do not have many relatives here except a cousin and my wife.
''But since I am paralysed, I cannot take care of myself. I was very depressed when police arrested my wife and had thought of committing suicide several times because I could not stand living on my own.
''But my wife and my mainland family encouraged me to live on and now, after all those efforts we have made, we are finally reunited.'' Mr Pang said his wife was expected to be released next Monday and the first thing he would do was to pay tribute to the Wong Tai Sin Temple for answering his prayers.
