| Abstract | About 40,000 children are thought to have entered Hong Kong legally under the official quota of 150 a day. But that still leaves another 30,000 - not all of whose parents are willing to wait an average ten years to get to Hong Kong via proper channels. So when a "snakehead" (immigrant smuggler) offered to sneak some China-born mothers and their children into Hong Kong, they took him up. More China-born mothers are making the gamble these days, in part because of rumors in southern China that Hong Kong will announce an amnesty after 1 July 1997 for illegal immigrants, especially minor. Such illegal immigrants also hope that after Hong Kong's return to China on 1 July 1997, they will be allowed to live in the new special administrative region (SAR) - a right vouchasfed the China-based offspring of local residents by the Basic Law, the SAR's charter. |
|---|
