Mainland pregnants flocking into Hong Kong to give birth........

....an old problem here: The mainland woman pregnant want to give birth in Hong Kong. Why ?Because then the baby is a permanent HK resident....and after maybe 18 -- 20 years this now grown-up baby can apply for dependent visa for his parents even if they are not born in Hong Kong. Mainland pregnant women abusing the emergency call of the public hospitals - they cannot be refused...."Smart business people" arranging the trips for this woman including husbands to Hong Kong - they are "storing" them in some kind of hostels.......it is just a dirty business using the loopholes in Hong Kong. HK government seems not powerful enough to complain to the mainland government more seriously.
Here some little efforts to tackle that problem......Donald Tsang almost at the end of his term - why shall he care too much - let this job be done by the next CE........Please read here from THE STANDARD:
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Tsang out to deliverPhila Siu Friday, January 20, 2012
Pregnant mainlanders trying to give birth in Hong Kong are to face a four-way clampdown.
The plan is to hit them in the pocket, toughen border checks, chase the sneaks and raid unlicensed hotels who put them up.
Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam- kuen yesterday set out four steps against mainland moms-to-be gate-crashing emergency wards and hospitals.
Speaking in a Legislative Council question-and-answer session, he said the Hospital Authority will review public hospital charges for pregnant non-locals who turn up at accident wards to deliver their babies.
Second, the Immigration Department will get more resources to beef up border checks.
Local and mainland authorities will work together to crack down on intermediaries who help expectant women sneak across the border.
And fourth, the government will increase raids on unlicensed hostels that put up pregnant mainland women.
"The government will carefully handle the issue of mainland people giving birth in Hong Kong," Tsang said. "I understand there has been pressure on the city's medical system.
"The government places high importance on this matter. Hong Kong people should have priority to use the city's medical system."
Tsang said the government has already set quotas on the number of pregnant mainlanders the city's private and public hospitals can admit. The quota is 3,400 for public hospitals and 31,000 for private hospitals. He said the quota has led to a drop in the number of mainlanders giving birth in Hong Kong.


But lawmaker Lee Cheuk-yan did not think the four measures would be sufficient and called for an urgent review of the quota mechanism.
At present, the quota applies to all mainland women, even if the spouse is a Hong Kong resident. Lee said such families should not be affected by the quota, and Tsang promised to look further into this.
According to the Census and Statistics Department, 88,500 people were born in Hong Kong in 2010.
Babies born to mainland families - in which neither mother nor father were Hongkongers - accounted for 36.9 percent. It was only 16.2 percent in 2005 and 1.3 percent in 2001.Tsang said he will look into how this can be tackled further.
Cheung Tak-hong, head of Prince of Wales Hospital's obstetrics department, said the four measures may not be very effective as so many mainlanders want a Hong Kong birth certificate.
The Immigration Service Officers Association said the department would need to hire 400 more officers to strengthen border checks.
On the Hong Kong identity remark by Central Government Liaison Office official Hao Tiechuan, Tsang said different Hong Kong people have various views on the matter.
Hao had criticized a University of Hong Kong survey in which people were asked whether they considered themselves Hongkongers or Chinese.
"Hongkongers should know what is right or wrong," Tsang said.
When lawmakers criticized Tsang for failing to defend Hongkongers over Hao's remark, Tsang said there was no need for him to comment on every issue.
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