Hong Kong family faces life apart

Hundreds of children could be sent back to China

Eight months ago the BBC's Damian Grammaticas visited the Cheng family, which a controversial Hong Kong immigration policy threatened to tear apart. As the territory begins to forcibly deport people, he returned to talk to them.

Cheng Chi-shing has just celebrated his seventh birthday, a day any child should mark as a happy one. Particularly a boy like Chi-shing who has two devoted parents and two loving sisters.

But Chi-shing has just been told that he has one more month to spend with his family.

After that there could be a knock on the door at any time.

I don't mind working hard... I don't even mind living in a single small room. But it's the uncertainty over the fate of my children that really worries me

Mr Cheng

Then, he and his 11-year-old sister Fung-yi could be seized by the police and deported to China.

Across the border they have no home, no school, no relatives, no one to care for them.

Last week Mr Cheng had to take his two youngest children to Hong Kong's Immigration Department.

It was a visit he made with trepidation. The immigration officers could have repatriated his children on the spot.

The good news was they did not. He was told he could keep them living with him in Hong Kong.

The bad news was the children can only stay until 9 May, just one month away. Then they all must report to the authorities again.

"I'm really concerned because the immigration officers didn't say what is going to happen when I come back" said Mr Cheng.

"I worry about this situation every day. I'm not happy at all."

A life of uncertainty

The first time I visited the Cheng family was eight months ago. Then their lives were full of uncertainty.

Fung-yi, 11, could be deported in a month

Today it is even worse. From one month to the next they simply do not know what the future holds.

The Chengs are legal citizens of Hong Kong. But the government has decided that their two youngest children do not have the right to live with them.

Like many men, Mr Cheng moved to Hong Kong from mainland China to find work.

He came in 1979. At the time Hong Kong's colonial authorities had highly restrictive policies that meant spouses had to wait for years for immigration clearance to join their husbands.

It took 14 years for Mrs Cheng's permission to come through. By that time the Chengs had three children, all born in China.

They were told they could only bring one. The youngest two could not get papers to come. So the family decided to smuggle them in, then fight to stay together.

When I saw them last August the Chengs were just one of several thousand families in the same position. All were involved in a final court appeal to be allowed to keep their children in Hong Kong.

There are many cases where there are strong grounds to show compassion

In January they lost. And now 4,000 children of Hong Kong residents are being deported. Seven-year-old Chi-shing and 11-year-old Fung-yi are among them.

A number of people, some as old as 70, who live in Hong Kong caring for their elderly, sick and dying parents, also face deportation.

A call for compassion

Mr Cheng has called on the Hong Kong Government to use its discretion and grant some families special leave to keep their children.

"They should use it in my case" pleads Mr Cheng. "What the government is doing goes far beyond what is reasonable. It's doing a very bad thing. And it's not just my children who should stay. There are many cases where there are strong grounds to show compassion."

Mr Cheng is a poor man. He works as a chef. The only place he can afford for his family to live in is a tiny, one-room flat.

"I don't mind working hard and for long hours. I don't even mind living in a single small room," he says. "But it's the uncertainty over the fate of my children that really worries me."

If Mr Cheng was rich his children would not be in this predicament. He would be able to hire the best lawyers to fight his case.

If that did not work, he would probably be able to bribe officials in China to get his son and daughter the immigration papers they need.

So, instead, Chi-shing has been spending his birthday with little to celebrate. And beyond 9 May his family have no idea how long they have left together.