Lawmaker moves to insert Filipino ban in Hong Kong immigration law
Albert Chan files amendments to law that will serve as sanctions over Manila bus hostage crisis, but must first secure chief executive's support
People Power lawmaker Albert Chan Wai-yip yesterday outlined a proposed amendment to the immigration law that would ban new Filipino domestic workers - and eventually all Filipino visitors - from the city until President Benigno Aquino apologises for the 2010 Manila hostage tragedy.
Legislative Council president Jasper Tsang Yok-sing, who received the amendments filed early on Friday, promised to seek the government’s advice on Chan’s proposal the same day.
He warned that according to Article 74 of the Basic Law, the city’s mini-constitution, a lawmaker would need the chief executive’s written consent before he could introduce a bill to change a public policy.
The article also forbids lawmakers from tabling any bill that relates to “the operation of the government”, but Tsang declined to say whether Chan’s bill violated any of these requirements.
[We wanted to introduce rules on] domestic workers from the Philippines to use that as a means to sanction against the Filipino government
Chan is seeking to change the law in three steps: first, to ban new Filipino domestic helpers starting from April next year; secondly, to stop renewing the entry permits of maids in the city in January 2015; and lastly, to bar all Filipinos from entering Hong Kong starting from July 2015 until the Philippines apologises.