Minority residents ask Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam to address inequality concerns

Ahead of chief executive’s maiden policy address on Wednesday, group urges action to ensure fair treatment in schools, at work and in hospitals

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A group of ethnic minority residents, students and activists speak to a government representative (front right) outside the government’s headquarters. Photo: Tony Cheung

Published: 8:41am, 9 Oct 2017Updated: 12:31pm, 9 Oct 2017

A group of ethnic minority residents and activists has urged Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor to eliminate “long-standing inequality” in the city’s education, employment and medical services.

The residents said while many of them were born in Hong Kong, many kindergartens or schools had refused to accept their children. Those who struggled to speak Cantonese also faced difficulties in finding jobs or accessing public health care services, they said.

They hoped that Lam, as the city’s former social welfare chief, would be more forthcoming in her maiden policy address than her predecessor Leung Chun-ying, who they said failed to deliver on his election promise to end their plight.

Lam will unveil her policy blueprint in the Legislative Council on Wednesday.

“We had a dialogue with Leung during his campaign in 2012, but not any more afterwards ... We want to give Mrs Lam a chance, and we understand that her administration is facing a lot of problems, but the ethnic minority have their needs too,” said Jeffrey Andrews, a Hong Kong-born social worker who is ethnically Indian.

Gathering outside the government’s headquarters at Tamar on Sunday, the group chanted “We love Hong Kong, we are Hongkongers, we are Hong Kong’s future” in both English and Cantonese.