DATE=04/01/02

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=HONG KONG / IMMIGRANTS (S)

NUMBER=2-288207

BYLINE=HEDA BAYRON

DATELINE=HONG KONG

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: Hundreds of mainland Chinese seeking the right to live in Hong Kong have defied a government deadline to go back to China. As V-O-A's Heda Bayron reports from Hong Kong, while thousands voluntarily left the territory Monday morning, hundreds still remain in Hong Kong despite the risk of deportation.

TEXT: Negotiations are underway between Hong Kong immigration officials and a group of Chinese migrants seeking permanent residency in the territory to find a peaceful resolution to the stand-off.

More than four-thousand Chinese migrants, mostly children of Chinese immigrants who are permanent residents in Hong Kong, have already left the territory (Monday) but hundreds vowed to remain in Hong Kong and fight deportation.

/// WOMAN ACT IN CHINESE, FADE UNDER ///

This tearful mother says she will defy the police. She cries that all her family members are in Hong Kong and she will do anything to be with them.

The government said it will take "repatriation action" against them but it is not clear what action it will take or when.

The mainland Chinese want the government to allow them to stay in Hong Kong with their relatives. At least five-thousand of them lost an appeal in January for the right to live in the territory and were ordered to return to China by Sunday.

This is one of the most sensitive issues facing Hong Kong since it reverted to Chinese rule in 1997. The government has kept strict control on the number of Chinese immigrants into the small but prosperous southern special administrative region. (Signed)

NEB/HK/HB/MAR/RH