HONG KONG (SE): Pope Francis chose Building the Future with Migrants and Refugees as the theme for the World Day of Migrants and Refugees on September 25. In his message, the pope highlights the commitment that we are all called to share in building a future that embraces everyone [Sunday Examiner, March 2]. In light of the pope’s call to solidarity, the plight of migrants in Hong Kong during the recent outbreak of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 has shown they are left behind in many cases.
Many infected migrant workers have been abandoned or terminated by their employers, leaving them to the care of non-government organisations or Church groups who have been providing them with temporary shelter. However, these groups worry that they lack the resources to shoulder the responsibility as more infected workers will need help when the government decides conducts mass testing in the city. They urged the authorities to prioritise infected migrants for isolation facilities as they have no home of their own where they can quarantine.
Eman Villanueva, the spokesperson of the Asian Migrant Coordinating Body [AMCB], told the Sunday Examiner on March 5, that since mid-February, the group have been working with the Mission for Migrant Workers [MFMW] based at St. John’s Cathedral, Garden Road, to help infected migrant workers. They receive three to five requests daily from workers who have been terminated after a positive result from Rapid Antigen Test [RAT] kit, or from those whose employers would not allow them to stay home.
As the Hong Kong government is prioritising space in the isolation facilities for at-risk populations such as elderly and children, we strongly urge them to include foreign domestic workers in these priority categories immediately
Eman Villanueva
By early March, they had already offered shelter to around 100 infected workers and also managed to separate those who had already recovered and tested negative. However, with the Hong Kong government mooting madatory city-wide mass testing, Villanueva is concerned that more infected foreign domestic workers will be seeking shelter, currently provided mainly by non-government organisations.
“More migrant workers will test positive after the mass testing. That means more of them will be homeless. The government needs to prepare for the scenario and be ready for that,” he said.
“As the Hong Kong government is prioritising space in the isolation facilities for at-risk populations such as elderly and children, we strongly urge them to include foreign domestic workers in these priority categories immediately,” Villanueva said.
He explained that unlike their employers, foreign domestic workers do not have a home where they can safely isolate, heal and recover because they are constrained by the live-in requirement of their contracts. Many have to share a room with their wards, which can be a reason for irresponsible employers to kick them out.
He said that his group and other non-government organisations are working hard to provide shelters, otherwise, infected workers will have to sleep in public areas. “If we think from the point of view of public health, these homeless workers can cause risks for others,” he pointed out.
According to Villanueva, due to the lack of information, some still choose to take another test at a government community testing centre, costing $240 each time, hoping it will be released quickly and then planned to stay in the airport for two to three nights
In addition, the groups have also distributed around 500 care packages—which include RAT kits, vitamin C, food, flu medicine for three days—to infected workers who are isolated and without supplies, as well as to workers who are quarantining because their employers’ family have been confirmed infected.
Sometimes, the packages included a mattress if their employers asked the infected workers to sleep in the living room, away from their wards who used to sharing a bedroom with them.
Furthermore, the group is concerned about workers overstaying at the airport due to the slow release of test results from government community testing centres, which now takes as long as five days.
Villanueva explained that this is quite unacceptable for Filipino workers going home as they need to present a negative RT-PCR test result, taken 48 hours prior to departure, upon arriving in the Philippines. However, some workers, unaware of the long time needed, took a test one to two days before their flights and ended up with no result to present at the airport.
According to Villanueva, due to the lack of information, some still choose to take another test at a government community testing centre, costing $240 each time, hoping it will be released quickly and then planned to stay in the airport for two to three nights.
In fact, many are left with no option but to go to a private clinic at the airport, which charges nearly $500 for a quicker test result so they can catch their flight. In whatever situation, they will need to apply to the Immigration Department for a visa extension, which requires a fee of over $200 for an extension of two to three days.
Due to the high cost of testing and visa extensions, the AMCB also finds it necessary to offer financial support to those stranded at the airport. They are urging the government to waive visa extension fees incurred due to late PCR tests as most workers have already tried their best to leave before their visa expires.
Villanueva urged people to support the fund-raising programme of its working partner, the Mission for Migrant Workers, to support confirmed infected workers who have no place to stay. Details can be found by calling its donation hotline: 9529 0387, or through the website concerned: https://donorbox.org/help-abandoned-domestic-workers.
For workers who test positive, they can call the service hotline of the Mission for Migrant Workers: 9529 2326.
