Hong Kong doctors join localist protest against one-way permit scheme, as mainland migrant influx blamed for stretched hospitals

  • Radiation therapist says seven in 10 patients daily are new migrants from mainland, contributing to overcrowding in city’s health care system
  • Permit scheme was launched in the 1980s to encourage family reunifications, allowing 150 mainlanders to settle daily

A protester brings along a child as localists and doctors voice opposition to a migrant scheme that they say is contributing to overcrowded hospitals. Photo: Nora Tam

Hong Kong doctors joined localists on Sunday to call for the abolition of a controversial migrant scheme taking in 150 mainlanders daily – a policy activists blamed for overcrowding at public hospitals.

Some 20 protesters, claiming to represent about 30 concern groups and political parties, staged a rally outside the office of the city’s leader in Admiralty, decrying the so-called one-way permit scheme.

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