HK forces Chinese abode seeker back home

Thousands of Chinese migrants face deportation from Hong Kong

HONG KONG, China -- Immigration authorities in Hong Kong have forcibly deported the first of some 2,000 Chinese migrants who have been denied the right to live in the territory.

The 33-year old man who has a wife and child in Hong Kong, was repatriated to mainland China on Monday.

He is the first so-called abode seeker to be sent back to the mainland since the expiration of a March 31 deadline to leave Hong Kong voluntarily.

The man, Wu Jia-tun, was forced into a van by immigration officials and transported to the border on Monday afternoon, his sister told Reuters news agency.

She said he had been told to report to the immigration office after he requested an extension to stay in the territory with his wife, who had given birth in mid-March. She said he believed he would get an extension on compassionate grounds.

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Instead, Wu's sister said, officials told him they would be deporting him immediately and forced him into a van.

"He was telling me on his mobile phone that they were pushing him into a van when the line went dead," Reuters quoted her as saying.

Torn apart

The government's pledge to deport migrants who do not have the right to live in Hong Kong has sparked a series of protests in the former British colony.

Many families say they face being torn apart as a result of the policy.

Nonetheless Hong Kong's security chief, Regina Ip, says more migrants will be removed in the coming weeks.

Mainland Chinese girl Chan Suk-ting, who faces deportation, attends a protest rally with her family

In a statement released Monday a spokesman for the Hong Kong security bureau said it was not policy to comment on individual cases, but emphasized that any actions were carried out in strict accordance with the law.

"Before informing and making repatriation arrangements for right of abode claimants, the Immigration Department has already fully taken into account any relevant humanitarian or compassionate considerations," he said.

The move follows a court decision in January that children born in China do not have the right to join their parents in Hong Kong.

The government says that so far only about 20 of the abode seekers have returned voluntarily to the mainland after the deadline passed.

Although Hong Kong returned to Chinese control in 1997, it has a special status under the so-called "one country, two systems" formula that keeps a tight reign on immigration from the mainland.

The government says that if it allows the abode seekers to stay in Hong Kong it could open the floodgates to more than 1.6 million mainlanders who claim rights to live in the overcrowded territory.