The letters will protect the abode seekers, who lost their final appeal in January, from being punished on the mainland after their return.

By 9.30 pm Sunday, a total of 4,885 identification letters had been issued, and 3,727 people, or nearly 75 percent of claimants who lost their cases, had returned to the mainland.

The number of people who returned to the mainland was recorded at only 1,806 on Thursday.

Though the past three days were Easter holidays, special arrangements had been made at the Immigration Department's removal section in Sheung Wan to issue the letters.

The Security Bureau reiterated that the grace period would not be expanded and there would be no asylum for abode seekers.

Some overstayers decided to return to the mainland immediately; with a few even carrying their belongings to the Immigration Department office so that they could leave Hong Kong as soon as they got the letters.

A couple, surnamed Hu, said they would return to Fujian later last night with their seven-year old son, who was not granted right of abode since arriving in Hong Kong in 1999. They were leaving for good because their child could not attend school in Hong Kong without the right of abode.

But some people chose to stay back, losing their last chance to get the identification letters and risking being arrested.

A middle-aged woman, surnamed Zhuang, who has been to Hong Kong several times since 1995 on two-way permits, said she would stay with her parents and younger brother.

A large group of abode seekers staged a candlelight vigil at the Chater Gardens, Central, last night. The gathering, they said, would continue throughout the night. And this morning, they were scheduled to march in protest to the Security Bureau, Legal Aid Department and Immigration Department's removal section.

HKSAR government officials had on Saturday urged the abode seekers to return to the mainland before March 31 and warned them that they would be repatriated after that date.

Thanks to the government efforts, those who had returned to the mainland with identification letters were neither fined nor discriminated against. Their future exit application to Hong Kong, or other overseas destinations, will be ensured, Wen Wei Po reports.

(China Daily April 1, 2002)