Source:
https://scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education/article/1817615/undocumented-boy-12-chased-out-hong-kong-campaign Education
Undocumented boy, 12, 'chased out of Hong Kong by campaign of harassment'
Grandmother of undocumented 12-year-old had him voluntarily deported to Shenzhen to escape ongoing hostility, says lawmaker
12-year-old boy Siu Yau-wai and his grandmother Chow Siu-shuen on their way to Shenzhen after seeking voluntary repatriation. Photo: K.Y.Cheng
A 12-year-old boy who lived in Hong Kong without legal papers for nine years was voluntarily deported to the mainland after he was hounded out of the city by a campaign of harassment, according to a legislator.
Hostility against Siu Yau-wai and his grandmother Chow Siu-shuen, 67, escalated to the point where people were banging on their door in the middle of the night, said Federation of Trade Unions lawmaker Wong Kwok-kin yesterday, a day after the two left for Shenzhen and disappeared across the border.
Yau-wai's case came to light when his grandmother contacted FTU legislator Chan Yuen-han, who paraded them before the media last month to highlight their plight and appeal to the Immigration Department to allow the boy to remain in Hong Kong.
Chan was accused of trying to get political mileage out of the case, while protesters harassed them, complaining the boy was an illegal immigrant who should be deported immediately to avoid setting a precedent for others from the mainland.
"They said they had moved to a new residence to avoid harassment, but the harassment continued," Wong said on government radio. "People knocked on their door and made noises in the middle of the night.
"Yau-wai, though he looks tall and big, is a 12-year-old child after all. Probably he could not stand it. He cried a lot, they said. The grandmother felt for the boy and therefore said she thought of sending him back."
After the grandmother took Yau-wai to the Immigration Department on Thursday, the two were driven in a government van to Shenzhen, followed by a media pack.
Legislator Chan Yuen-han.
Chow had claimed the boy had been abandoned by his parents when she smuggled him into Hong Kong at the age of three using another child's documents. However, unconfirmed media reports yesterday suggested the mainland's Public Security Bureau had found Yau-wai's parents and they were willing to take him back. The reports also suggested the two-way permit Yau-wai had used to enter Hong Kong was in his own name.
The Immigration Department said the investigation into the grandmother's case was still continuing but it had confirmed the identity of the boy and his status as a mainland resident with the Public Security Bureau.
The grandmother is out on bail after being arrested for helping the boy breach his conditions of stay and is due to report back to the department in four weeks.
It is understood the department will look at her testimony in a interview after she and her grandson surrendered themselves last month.
A source told the Post the department was not worried Chow would abscond. "If she fails to report back, she will be placed on a list of wanted persons," the source said.
Wong yesterday defended Chan, for not being able to verify the grandmother's claims. "As legislators, we can only hear one side: that is the person seeking our assistance. We don't have the capacity to verify whether their claims are true, or which parts of the claims are true," he said.