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| Hong Kong International Airport (Image credits: Gaurav Amarnani) |
A heavily pregnant
Chinese woman wanted her unborn child to be born in Hong Kong so desperately,
she hid in the airport for a week.
RT report continues:
The
26-year-old was sentenced to six months in jail on Wednesday for hiding in a
restricted area of Hong Kong International Airport from July 14 - 21, according
to The Standard (See below).
Xie
Miaoling deliberately missed her connecting flight to Guangzhou, and illegally
camped out in the airport until she finally went into labour, only alerting
airport staff when she began experiencing labour pains and needed medical
assistance.
Children
born in Hong Kong to mainland Chinese women (or ‘anchor babies’ as they are
also referred to) are given the right of abode and are also able to benefit
from Hong Kong’s education system.
Tourism
took a sharp dive following the SARS outbreak in 2003, in an attempt to boost
the Hong Kong economy The Individual Visit Scheme was launched. The scheme
allowed travelers to visit the city on an individual basis, as opposed to
previous years when only travelers with business visas or group tours could
enter.
However,
expectant mothers soon took advantage of the new travel rules and, at its peak,
in 2010 over 32,000 anchor babies were born, putting much strain on hospital
resources and leading to criticism of the scheme.
In
2012 CY Leung, incumbent Chief Executive of Hong Kong, changed policy by
disallowing pregnant women from booking obstetric services at public hospitals
and banning mainland Chinese mothers from giving birth in private hospitals -
unless their husbands are HK residents.
Since then, the number of
anchor baby births have dropped dramatically, 254 non-eligible mothers gave
birth in Hong Kong’s Accident and Emergency Departments in 2015. Of these, 98
were women from mainland China, according to Hospital Authority statistics.
Mainlander Jailed For Flight Pregnancy
Ploy
The
Standard reports that a pregnant mainlander was sentenced to six months in jail
yesterday for staying in the airport's restricted area without a permit.
Xie
Miaoling, 26, had arrived from an overseas trip on July 14 and was due to board
a flight to Guangzhou at 8.20pm that day.
However,
she neither boarded the flight or arranged for any other flight out of Hong
Kong, staying in the restricted area until July 21, when she started to have
labor pains and asked to be taken to hospital.
In
mitigation, Xie said she did not board the aircraft because she was feeling
unwell.
The
magistrate was not convinced, saying Xie deliberately remained at the airport
as she wanted to give birth in Hong Kong.
Xie,
who was bailed, pleaded guilty to one count of remaining in a restricted area
without a permit when she appeared in a Tsuen Wan Magistrates' Court.
The
court was told Xie remained in the restricted area of Hong Kong International
Airport after she arrived.
She
neither approached airline staff to arrange another flight ticket after missing
her flight, nor ask airport staff for assistance.
On
July 21, Xie started to have labor pains and called for medical help.
Lawmaker
Leung Ka-lau said such behavior was dangerous as the mother-to-be did not have
any body checks before giving birth.
"Both
the mother and the baby were at risk as the hospital may not have enough time
to make any preparations. They could suffer from complications," he said.
Leung
said the number of mainlanders giving birth in Hong Kong has reached a low
since public hospitals stopped accepting non-locals from April 2012.
Barrister
Albert Luk Wai- hung said the incident indicated airport security measures
should be raised to prevent a repetition.
But Luk said it is hard for
airline staff to determine if passengers are pregnant when they hide it
intentionally.
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