23 pregnant mainland women suspected in fake marriages

Immigration officers say they have detected 23 mainland women suspected to have undergone sham marriages with Hong Kong men so that they could have babies in the city after the "zero-birth quota" policy came into effect on January 1.

They were tracked down in checks on private hospitals after suspicions were raised last month about some women who said their babies belonged to mainland men, not their Hong Kong husbands, and others who had apparently married after they fell pregnant.

One of the women is now serving a jail term, meaning her baby is likely to be born in Hong Kong anyway.

The policy, barring mainland women without Hong Kong husbands from giving birth in the city, was announced by Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying in April as part of efforts to stem a surge of such births by women seeking Hong Kong abode rights for their children.

"I hope these 23 cases were the last batch of such cases and no more mainlanders will try such a way to come to Hong Kong," the director of immigration, Eric Chan Kwok-ki, said yesterday.

He said some cases were discovered when the mother went to the department to register their births.

"The mother claimed to us the baby did not belong to her Hong Kong husband, but to a mainland man. So we found it suspicious."