HK abode seekers in new protest

Many of the migrants and their families are defiant

Hundreds of mainland Chinese abode-seekers marched through Hong Kong on Tuesday, despite government threats to deport them.

About 400 people marched on Hong Kong's Court of Final Appeal, where their requests to meet officials were turned down.

The Hong Kong authorities have started issuing removal letters to up to 4,300 Chinese-born people now living in the territory after a deadline for them to stay ran out on Sunday.

I'll kill myself if they forcibly repatriate me

Wong Mei-yin

The abode-seekers, whose parents have the right to stay in Hong Kong, want the government to reconsider because families would be split apart.

Government officials say they are ready to search the streets for people from mainland China who lack residency rights.

Officials said "routine" and "special" operations would be mounted to find and remove people who did not surrender to the authorities.

The government has so far sent out 300 letters telling people to report to immigration offices for repatriation.

Defiance

But several marchers interviewed by journalists said they would not obey the order.

Wong Mei-yin, 32, told Reuters news agency: "I'll kill myself if they forcibly repatriate me. At least if I die in Hong Kong, my family can deal with my remains.

"I have no relative on the mainland".

This woman's 16-year-old daughter must leave

The migrants were born in mainland China and have spent years trying to win the right of abode with their parents in the territory. The deadline for them to leave was set after migrants lost a final legal case earlier this year.

The Hong Kong authorities insist there can be no negotiations.

"If people report voluntarily to the Immigration Department, they will be repatriated," Deputy Security Secretary Michael Wong said.

"If they choose not to do so, then they have absconded."

The only people whose removal would be delayed were those with legal action pending, Mr Wong added.

Our correspondent Damian Grammaticas says some of the people now facing deportation are as young as six years old, though many are teenagers or older.

Among those told to leave are one of a pair of twin girls and a 70-year-old man who lives in Hong Kong caring for his 90-year-old father.

The abode-seekers are particularly bitter because they were initially granted the right to live with their parents three years ago.

But Hong Kong's authorities, with the help of the central government in Beijing, removed those rights, citing the need to limit immigration to the territory.