The mainland wife of a Hong Kong resident will go to jail for five months, for using a baby she had borrowed to carry across the border, in order to conceal the fact that she was pregnant.

Zhang Xueying, 29, passed through the city's immigration control last November when she was 18-weeks pregnant. Medical staff at the border point caught her but she denied any intention to have her baby in Hong Kong.

Zhang left the city in late January, after the government introduced new measures aimed at curbing the incoming tide of mainland women who wanted to have their babies in Hong Kong, granting their offspring automatic right of abode.

Zhang was reunited with her Hong Kong husband on February 23 in Shenzhen when she was seven months pregnant. The couple was joined by Zhang's sister-in-law, Yang Hongmei, who arrived in company with her two-month-old infant.

Before crossing the border, the infant was strapped to Zhang's chest, in an attempt to conceal her pregnancy from immigration officers. Zhang told officers that the infant was delivered prematurely. After further enquiry, she was granted the permission to enter Hong Kong.

Zhang's lie was exposed, when she delivered a baby boy at a local hospital on April 20. Both Zhang and Yang were charged with conspiracy to defraud.

Only five days after Zhang's baby was born, the government announced alternative measures to accommodate mainland wives of Hong Kong residents, to give greater latitude for them to deliver in local private hospitals.

And two months after Zhang's delivery, she was issued the one-way permit to officially migrate into the city, making her eligible to free health care in the city with a new identity card.

During the trial in late July, the defendant's lawyer had argued that the crime was committed because the health care system in Hong Kong was driven "out of balance" and that husbands had been unable to make appointments for their wives at any local hospitals.

Yang, on the other hand, was said to have unwillingly taken part in the scheme because of family ties. Both women claimed to be unaware that they were breaking the law.

The arguments failed to persuade Deputy Magistrate David Cheung Chi-wai - both women were sentenced to five months in jail for the conspiracy.

Cheung said the act of gatecrashing was irresponsible placing both the infant and the mother at risk. The resources of emergency services were improperly used by the defendant, he concluded. Saying that it was human nature to make the best choices for children, Cheung added that personal interest was no exemption for anyone who violates the law from incarceration.

An Immigration Department spokesman later said that the department is concerned about gatecrashing. "We will continue to spare no effort to intercept pregnant, non-local women at control points and combating any related offences detected."

According to statistics provided by the Hospital Authority, 780 pregnant women from the mainland delivered babies in Hong Kong hospitals without prior appointments, during the first seven months of 2012, compared to 693 in the same period of 2011.

kahon@chinadailyhk.com

(HK Edition 08/07/2012 page1)