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| Law says HK has been trying to limit the number of FDHs entering HK since the coronavirus outbreak |
Law said this at the press conference held this afternoon, Aug 21, by
Chief Executive Carrie Lam, along with six of her top officials.
“In the next few days, the Immigration Department will clear
the backlog of applications as we want to reduce the length of stay in boarding
facilities to just a few days,” said Law.
For those who finished their contracts and are moving to a
new employer, the processing time will be cut from the current 4-6 weeks to
just between a week to two weeks, he said.
“For applicants with terminated contracts the Immigration
Department will ask the reason for the termination…and in suspicious cases, they
will be asked to leave Hong Kong at once.”
Currently, thousands of FDHs whose contracts have been
terminated have been allowed to stay because of limited flights, or the strict
travel restrictions imposed in their home countries which make it almost
impossible for them to go back.
In many cases, the FDHs with terminated contracts have also
been allowed to process new contracts here and start working for their new
employers, especially in exceptional cases, where the cause of termination was
relocation or financial in nature.
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| FDHs with terminated contracts may be told to leave if they cannot justify their continued stay in HK |
The labour chief said the Immigration Department has
undertaken to speed up the processing of visa applications of FDHs in the wake
of a cluster of infections found among Indonesian domestic workers staying in
various agency-run dormitories.
As of the latest report from the Centre for Health
Protection, 17 Indonesian maids who stayed in seven different agency shelters
or boarding houses, have tested positive for Covid-19.
But Law noted that the rate of infection among FDHs was far
lower than among the city’s general population, which he attributed to their
high mobility.
Of the 1,800 specimen samples from FDHs who stay in
agency-run shelters, only one tested positive, for a .008 positivity rate.
Targeted tests done on other sectors in the community yielded a .01% positive
result.
CE Lam, however, added a note of caution, saying more test
results from the agency shelters and staff in the Kwai Tsing container port,
where an even bigger cluster of about 70 infections have been found, will be
reported early next week.
Law said that as part of the effort to contain the spread of
the virus, employment agencies will be offered a one-off free test for their
recruits who are about move in with new employers.
The new moves are said to be in line with the government’s
policy imposed since March, of reducing the number of FDHs arriving in the
city, and allowing those whose contracts have expired to remain if they have
trouble exiting to their home countries.
Before the coronavirus outbreak, he said there was on
average 580 FDHs arriving in the city each day. After the policy shift, the
number was reduced to about 100 arrivals per day.
But since the negative test result for Covid-19 was made a
precondition for them flying out to Hong Kong
starting on Jul 25, the number has dwindled to just about 30 daily.
