Fighting for the right to stay: for children born in Hong Kong to domestic workers, it’s an uphill battle to get permanent residency
Courts do not agree that maids and their children should get to remain in city for good. But some NGOs and human rights activists say these rulings fail to protect society’s most vulnerable members
Filipino domestic workers Antonio* and Marilou met in Hong Kong, fell in love and got married four years ago. He is 45 and has been here for 30 years, working as a domestic helper throughout, and she is 33 and a maid for more than a decade.
When their daughter Gracia was born last year, the couple was overjoyed, even though the new family was forced to live apart. To comply with Hong Kong rules, Gracia stays with Marilou in her employer’s flat in a private estate, while Antonio lives with his employer and visits his wife and daughter only three or four times a week.
Hong Kong allows foreign domestic workers to marry and have children, and the mothers are entitled to 10 weeks’ paid maternity leave like the city’s other working women. The children can stay, attend public schools and use community services, provided they live with their parents throughout.
Antonio and Marilou count themselves fortunate because both their employers allow Gracia to be with them. But they know they are living an abnormal life, married but separated.
“She is mommy’s girl,” Antonio said. “I am her playmate. I always make her laugh. When I need to go, she just smiles. And she will be sad after I leave. My wife tells me she keeps saying ‘tatay’ – ‘father’ in Tagalog.”
After all these years in Hong Kong, Antonio and Marilou would like to remain and make this their child’s home. But important rulings by the apex Court of Final Appeal (CFA) in 2013 and 2014 deemed foreign domestic workers ineligible for permanent residency, and cast doubt over whether their children are entitled to the status.
