The SUN HK : Filipina denied entry to HK stranded at Macau border for 3 days

Filipino domestic workers who get terminated in Hong Kong and try to wait for a new working visa in Macau, beware.

A Filipina who stayed in Macau as a visitor for the maximum visa-free period of 30 days then tried to get her visa extended for another 30 days but failed, was left stranded for three days at the border after being turned away by Hong Kong immigration.

The plight of the overseas Filipina worker named Irene was made known to fellow Filipinos in Hong Kong by a concerned friend who posted a call for help Monday on the Facebook page of the FDW group, Social Justice for Migrant Workers (SJMW).

PINDUTIN DITO!

“Helping a kabayan po, hingi po siya (ng) tulong, 2 days na po siya sa border ng Macao, hindi na siya pinapasok, refused na din (lalo) siya sa Hong Kong….Waiting visa siya dito sa Macau, then natapos na ang visa niya, hindi na siya pinapasok,” said the concerned friend, Carina.

(Helping a fellow Filipina, she is asking for help. She has been at the border with Macau, she has been refused entry, she was also refused (more so) in Hong Kong. She was waiting for her visa here in Macau, but she used up her (visitor’s visa) so she was not allowed back in).

According to SJMW’s Beth Rizardo, Irene did not have anything to eat for the three days that she was at the land border between Hong Kong and Macau because her friends who tried to send her food were not allowed in. They only managed to send drinks through a Filipina cleaner at the border station.

PINDUTIN PARA SA DETALYE

After hearing about her plight, the Social Justice administrators who include Beth immediately sent out an SOS to the Philippine Consulate and the Migrant Workers Office in Hong Kong, who in turn, asked help from their counterparts in Macau.

Assistant Labor Attache Tony Villafuerte who heads the MWO’s assistance to OFWs section, said in a conversation Wednesday afternoon that they had relayed the call for help to Macau Labor Attache Nena German, who helped coordinate Irene’s immediate repatriation with the Consulate there.

According to both Beth and Carina, Irene was fetched at the border by Consulate staff and escorted to Macau airport, where she was put on a Manila-bound flight at 8:20pm last night.

BASAHIN ANG DETALYE

Irene had told her friends that after using up her 30-day visa in Macau, she exited through Portas do Cerco, the barrier gate separating Macau from mainland China. But like many other Filipinos before her, she did a quick turnaround, hoping to get another 30 days of visa-free stay. To her dismay, she was given only three days.

She had planned to leave for Thailand supposedly but the agency trying to work on her new employment visa advised her to re-enter Hong Kong. Again, as many Filipinos would attest, this had been done before, and they did manage to enter Hong Kong again, though their stay as tourists is cut to just a few days.

But in a sign that authorities on both sides of the border are now plugging this loophole, Irene was refused entry to Hong Kong. She then tried to re-enter Macau, but was also stopped, leaving her in no-man’s land for three days.

“That is why we keep telling them not to take the risk of exiting to Macau, but to go back to the Philippines and wait for their visa there,” said Villafuerte.

This is also why Philippine laws mandate that all new hires must leave from the Philippines so they go through the whole process of getting their contracts validated and their rights ensured in their host countries.

But the high cost of going through an agency, both for the employer and the worker, and the long wait, not just for the visa, but also for the processing of their documents, is what makes staying in Macau a more attractive option to many.

In the case of Irene, the wait will now be longer, as the agency in Hong Kong will have to look for a counterpart in the Philippines, which by law, are the only ones allowed to process a new employment contract for a departing Filipino worker.

If she gets lucky, her Hong Kong employer would be willing to wait, and pay for the far higher fee charged by agencies to get her to come back and work here again.