by Vir B. Lumicao
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| OFWs held up by travel restrictions in the Philippines are returning to HK, agencies say |
The September surge in the number of Filipino domestic helpers in Hong Kong continued last month, with 748 additions at the end of last month, Immigration statistics show.
But the increase doesn’t really reflect a rebound in recruitment in the Philippines as the arrivals are most returning workers, according to the head of an employment agency group.
The second month of growth brought the total number of Filipinos helpers in the city to 208,143, up from 206,395 in the previous month.
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But the October total is still 11,585 short of the Filipino helper number in Hong Kong in January before the coronavirus crisis began.
Indonesian domestic helpers also grew in number by 678, to a total of 158,551, but this could be due to the gradual relaxation of the travel restrictions imposed by Jakarta on its migrant workers returning to their jobsites.
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Thomas Chan, chairman of the Hong Kong Union of Employment Agencies, says the increase in the ranks of both Filipino and Indonesian domestic helpers in the past two months could be mostly returning workers.
“For Indonesians, I guess most of them are those returnees or those working before in Hong Kong,” said Chan, whose Bright International Services Co deploys helpers from the two countries.
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“Since the Indonesian government is introducing a new policy
on placement for Indonesian agencies, most of the agencies there have stopped
sending files to
As for the growth in the Filipino helpers’ population, Chan said the majority of them must have been hired in earlier months but were not able to depart earlier because of Covid-related restrictions.
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“The recruitment in the
Last month, Chan said the returning Filipino helpers were those who went home for a vacation during the year-end holidays and got stranded by the long lockdowns in Metro Manila due to outbreaks of Covid-19 infections.
Since the start of the pandemic-related lockdown, the Manila-Hong Kong route has been serviced by irregular Cathay Pacific and Hong Kong Airlines flights, which were joined recently on the route by Philippine Airlines, and lately, by Cebu Pacific.
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Foreign Domestic Helpers Population in |
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At end of Month/Year |
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Other nationalities |
Total -- all nationalities |
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Jan-20 |
219,728 |
170,898 |
4,838 |
4,657 |
400,121 |
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Feb-20 |
217,654 |
171,291 |
4,857 |
4,619 |
398,421 |
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Mar-20 |
218,002 |
170,318 |
4,818 |
4,594 |
397,732 |
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Apr-20 |
215,061 |
167,747 |
4,723 |
4,493 |
392,024 |
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May-20 |
212,855 |
165,377 |
4,664 |
4,446 |
387,342 |
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Jun-20 |
211,426 |
164,528 |
|
9,052 |
385,006 |
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Jul-20 |
209,512 |
161,762 |
4,522 |
4,379 |
380,175 |
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Aug-20 |
204,023 |
157,337 |
4,360 |
4,245 |
369,965 |
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Sep-20 |
206,395 |
157,873 |
4,353 |
4,248 |
372,869 |
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October |
208,143 |
158,551 |
4,392 |
4,290 |
375,376 |
Source:
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