Families fight last stand to stay in HK

Tsang Kwa Ngan's idea of where her home is differs from that of the government

HONG KONG, China (CNN) -- A palpable ripple of fear swept through the makeshift protest camp as Tsang Kwa Ngan told of her dread of being forcibly removed from Hong Kong and returned to mainland China.

Word had just filtered through that police in Hong Kong had started hunting down illegal Chinese immigrants at their residences for deportation, since a deadline for thousands to leave voluntarily had expired.

Recounting how she had defied the authorities for five years by repeatedly returning to Kong Kong from China to support her brain-damaged father, Tsang had been on the brink of tears.

But news the police had stepped up their campaign to rid Hong Kong of thousands of Chinese living in Hong Kong seeking permanent right-of-abode proved more than she could bear.

"This is terrible, really terrible. I am now too scared to even go home," she wept as the rain and bad news cast a pall over the camp of tarpaulin and sleeping bags set in the midst of Hong Kong's central business district.

MORE STORIES Chinese migrants defy court order

Tsang is just one of almost 5,000 migrants who lost a protracted court appeal in January and were subsequently ordered by the Hong Kong government to leave the former British colony by March 31.

Over 4,300 people have defied the order to return voluntarily and families live in fear of being torn apart if the promised forced repatriation is carried out.

Young twin sisters have received wide media attention in the region, with one being granted permission to remain in Hong Kong and the other not. The 24-year-old business graduate serving as my interpreter during this interview is under order to return to China, while his parents and two siblings can stay.

For Tsang, 49, the makeshift camp in the central district's Chater Gardens represents something of a last stand.

'Never return'

Since 1999, when a brain hemorrhage rendered her father incapable of looking after himself, Tsang has single-handedly taken care of him. Exacerbating the already bleak situation is her difficulty in finding an income without possession of a Hong Kong ID card.

Four times she has been sent back to her original home in Fujian province and each time has ignored a judge's ire and threats of imprisonment, while risking fines that would drain her meager life savings.

Having waited five years for permission to settle in Hong Kong, Tsang is adamant she will never return to China to rejoin the long visa queues and a system she brands as arbitrary and corrupt.

"I will never go back. How can I? Do I just leave my paralyzed father alone and unable to care for himself?"

"The (legal) system (in Hong Kong) is at the mercy of China -- Beijing is the one pulling the strings," said Tsang, in reference to accusations China is wielding greater influence over a supposedly autonomous Hong Kong.

Fears of mass migration

Hong Kong's wealth may have been built on wave after wave of immigration from the mainland, but since the former British colony was handed back to China five years ago, the government has moved to stem the flow.

Fearing a flood of immigrants, both Beijing and Hong Kong have tried to restrict the numbers of mainlanders wishing to settle in the tiny territory.

In the ruling against the right-of-abode seekers eleven weeks ago by the territory's highest court, the Final Court of Appeal, all but 200 of the more than 5,000 mainland Chinese migrants were told they must leave.

Since then, in a last ditch attempt at staying, abode seekers and their supporters have conducted hunger strikes and mass protests, despite the constant threat of forced removal from the territory by police.

As a tearful Tsang took shelter under a tarpaulin canopy -- now bowing under the weight of rainwater -- many of the protesters were rallying together to voice their feelings once again.

As they headed off to protest the latest arrest of one of their own, the skies darkened and the rains came down. The storm clouds had well and truly gathered above Hong Kong's desperate right-of-abode seekers.