Philippines repatriated more than 360 workers in Macau and provided assistance to over 2,000 – Macau Business

More than 360 Filipino workers have been repatriated and more than 2,000 have received food aid in Macau through the Philippine consulate since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Philippine Consul General in Macau, Lilybeth Deapera, told Lusa.

In total, Deapera stated that the Philippine authorities have repatriated a total of 673 Filipinos from Macau, of whom 368 are workers.

On June 18 alone, a Philippine Airlines chartered plane carried 222 Filipino workers back to the country.

The number of Filipinos who have left the territory may be greater, the consul admitted, since many did not inform the consulate and left the territory before the borders were virtually closed.

With around 30,000 non-resident workers in Macau, Filipinos are, after those from the interior of China, the largest nationality with this type of visa in the territory.

Lilybeth Deapera also revealed that gambling operator Sands chartered a flight to repatriate its employees on Saturday and that on Monday Menzies Macau Airport Services will do the same.

The consul of the Philippines in Macau also said that the Philippine authorities distributed a total of 2,073 packs to affected Filipinos in Macau.

The beneficiaries were mostly workers who were made redundant or who are on unpaid leave, he detailed.

Since the beginning of the pandemic in Macao, thousands of people have been made redundant, the vast majority of whom are non-resident workers and who work in the giant gambling operators complexes in the world capital of casinos, in crisis due to border restrictions in Macao and, therefore, they are practically without tourists and players.

On the sidelines of the annual dragon boat races, Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng, commented on Thursday that the government cannot intervene in the procedure of companies, and that the situation alone is already quite difficult, considering it normal to have some game promoters reducing the number of workers .

On June 19, game operator Melco announced the dismissal of about 75 employees of the biggest show in the territory, House of Dancing Water, and closed the show until next year, according to testimonies of several workers to Lusa.

On June 17, the creation of the special maritime corridor to and from Hong Kong, until July 16, created a new opportunity for workers to leave Macau.

Today, in a press conference, the authorities of the territory indicated that more than 600 tickets have been sold for the transport from Macau to Hong Kong and that since June 17, 248 people have left the territory.

However, the consul of the Philippines in Macau, argued that the number of redundancies for Filipinos may not be directly related to this.

It just gives an alternative route, he said.

Today, the Labor Affairs Bureau released the number of non-resident workers by industry in late May.

According to these data, there were 189,274 non-resident workers in the territory in May, just 225 fewer workers than in May 2019.

Today, in response to the Lusa agency, the Indonesian consulate, one of the countries with the most non-resident workers in Macau, indicated that the number of Indonesian workers who have left Macau since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic has been insignificant, about 50 people.

Today, too, health services announced a new case of contagion from Covid-19, the first in the territory since April 9.

He is a resident of Macau, of Filipino nationality. The 57-year-old man, explained to Lusa a source of health services, arrived in the territory by ferry [] from Manila, via Hong Kong.

Macau was one of the first territories to identify cases of infection with the covid-19, before the end of January.

The city then registered a first wave of ten cases. Another 35 cases started in March, all imported, a situation associated with the return of residents, many students in higher education in foreign countries.

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Philippines repatriated more than 360 workers in Macau and provided assistance to over 2,000 - Macau Business