The Hong Kong-born Filipino sisters who ‘didn’t exist’ for 30 years

Dawn and Kaye got by for three decades without attending school, seeing a doctor or holding an identity card or passport

Their mother is a former domestic worker from the Philippines, who overstayed her visa. Now they want to help others in similar situations

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The two sisters, Kaye and Dawn, celebrate after receiving their birth certificates in late October. Photo: Handout

Published: 7:00am, 17 Dec 2020Updated: 12:13am, 2 May 2023

Dawn, 30, has a laugh that fills the room. Kaye, 29, looks attentively at her older sister in admiration – just like when they were children and she would follow her everywhere.

At first sight, there seems to be nothing unusual about these two sisters. But, behind their smiles, lie almost three decades of frustration.

Both Dawn and Kaye were born at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Yau Ma Tei, Hong Kong, but growing up they did not attend school, never saw a doctor, and never held an identity card or a passport. Officially, these two sisters did not exist.

Their mother, a former domestic worker from the Philippines, struggled to register them in the city and eventually gave up. “I tried to do their documents by myself... and I asked [their father] to do it for them, but he always changed his mind and I did not want to force him.”

Shortly after she had the two girls, Feli’s boyfriend – with whom she had been together for about five years – disappeared and never offered any support to their daughters.

By then, Feli had stopped working and felt she had no option but to go underground. “I was already overstaying [my visa] so I was afraid,” she recalled.