Filipina who kept friend’s HK ID card still refused bail

By Vir B. Lumicao 

One Filipina fails to get bail, another pleads not guilty to assault in Eastern Court today

A Filipina domestic helper who kept her friend’s Hong Kong ID card failed in her bid to be freed on bail when she returned to Eastern Court today, Jun 15, despite an offer from Bethune House Migrant Women’s Refuge to give her shelter.

M.K. Maing appeared before Magistrate Peter Law to apply for bail amounting to $1,200 and presented as her proposed address the charitable group’s shelter while awaiting the next hearing of her case.

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She faces a charge of possessing a Hong Kong identity card belonging to another person and another for overstaying her visa. She has been in police custody since her arrest on May 12.

Maing was arrested during a spot check after officers found two HKID cards in her wallet, hers and another card issued to her friend who had already gone back to the Philippines after apparently overstaying.

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The duty lawyer representing Maing said Bethune House, whose executive director Edwina Antonio was in court, was offering to give shelter to the defendant. But Magistrate Law refused the bail application after the prosecutor objected, citing the seriousness of the case.

Antonio, who attended the hearing along with Maing’s two relatives, was surprised by the court’s rejection of the bail application, and why the defendant’s case was said to be so serious.  

Antonio was surprised by the court's refusal to grant bail to Maing

She was also baffled why Maing was charged with overstaying when helper already had a new employer, and they were just waiting for her visa to be released on May 20. As a result of her arrest, the employer has backed out, Antonio said.

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Under the Registration of Persons Ordinance, anyone found in possession of another person’s HKID without lawful authority or reasonable excuse may be liable to pay a fine of up to $100,000 and imprisonment for 10 years.

Even a summary conviction would result in the offender being fined up to $50,000 and jailed for 2 years.

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Filipina to be tried for alleged boarding house assault

Meanwhile, a Filipina domestic helper is set to stand trial at Eastern Court on Jul 16 after she denied today, Jun 15, a charge of assault occasioning actual bodily harm on a fellow helper during a boarding house spat in Siu Sai Wan in January.

L. Regidor, 32, pleaded not guilty when the charge was read to her before Magistrate Peter Law. She first appeared in court on Mar 30.

According to the prosecution, Regidor had just woken up and was set to make coffee on Jan 9 when she heard two other boarders talking about her. After accosting the pair, she threw a mug at them, hitting one on the right side of her face, injuring her right eye.

The prosecution asked for a one-day trial saying it will present two witnesses, the alleged victim and her friend. The defense said will also have two witnesses.

Magistrate Law extended Regidor’s bail until her trial.

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Indonesia reclassified as ‘very high risk’ but no flight ban imposed

By Daisy CL Mandap

Passengers from Indonesia will spend 21 days in hotel quarantine even if vaccinated

Hong Kong has downgraded Indonesia from the "high risk" to the “very high risk” category starting on Jun 21, but stopped short of imposing a ban on passenger flights coming from the country.

The classification, announced today, Jun 15, means all travelers from Indonesia will have to quarantine in a hotel for 21 days when they arrive in Hong Kong, vaccinated or not.

They will also be tested four times during quarantine, and observe a seven-day self-monitoring period afterwards, followed by another compulsory testing on the 26^th day of arrival.

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Only Ireland is currently in this Group A2 specified place category.

The announcement came as two newly arrived Indonesian foreign domestic helpers, aged 28 and 39,  were reported to have tested positive on their third-day sample while in hotel quarantine. The younger one was found to carry the L542R mutant strain of the coronavirus.

Indonesia's re-classification was made during Hong Kong’s regular review of cross-boundary restrictions, which has been held every two weeks starting on May 3.

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There being no mention of any other changes in the regulations mean the passenger flight ban on the Group A2 specified countries including the Philippines, India, Pakistan, Nepal, South Africa and Brazil, remains in place.

Previously, new arrivals from Indonesia could quarantine for 14 days if they were vaccinated

Previously, Indonesia was in Group B “high-risk” category, along with places like the United States, United Kingdom, Italy, Japan, Thailand and Vietnam.

This means that vaccinated travelers from these countries could spend only 14 days in a hotel quarantine, and spend another week self-monitoring, with compulsory tests on the 16^th and 19^th day of arrival.

A government statement said Indonesia’s downgrade was due to the “persistent unstable epidemic situation in the region, as well as the prevalent transmission of cases involving the more transmissible and potentially more serious mutant virus strains…detected from important cases.”

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In the past 10 days, at least seven new arrivals from Indonesia, all foreign domestic helpers who arrived on two separate dates were found to carry a mutant strain of the coronavirus.

As a result, Garuda Indonesia and Cathay Pacific were separately suspended from flying passengers from Jakarta for two weeks, as they flew in the infected tavelers.

Had the incidents happened within a seven-day period, all passengers who had spent at least two hours in the past 21 days in Indonesia would have been stopped from boarding a flight to Hong Kong.

The city’s stringent boarding and quarantine requirements announced on May 4 require only five passengers from a country to test positive for any kind of variant on arrival test within a week, regardless of how many flights they had taken.

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"The government will continue to closely monitor the epidemic situation of various places, the prevalence of new virus variants, vaccination progress, and changes in the volume of cross-boundary passenger traffic, and will adjust the boarding and compulsory quarantine requirements for persons arriving at Hong Kong from relevant places as the situation warrants," the statement said.

Details on the grouping of specified places and their respective boarding and compulsory quarantine requirements can be found at www.coronavirus.gov.hk/eng/high-risk-places.html. 

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20 FDHs found to have violated compulsory testing notice

By The SUN

 

20 FDHs failed to comply with the mandatory testing order, 46 more being investigated

Police and staff from various government departments have found 20 foreign domestic helpers who failed to comply with the compulsory testing notice (CTN) issued by the government on May 12. The order was for the second round of compulsory testing for all FDHs from May 15-30.

According to a statement issued by the government, the violators were found during spot checks on 2,268 FDHs at their popular gathering places across Hong Kong on Sunday and Monday, a statutory holiday.

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It was not made clear if the 20 FDHs were fined $5,000 each, which is the summary penalty imposed on those who do not comply with CTNs. The statement merely said the violators were issued with compulsory testing orders which require them to undergo testing within a specified period.

If the order is not complied with, violators will be fined up to $25,000 and imprisoned for up to six months.

In addition, there were 46 FDHs whose testing or vaccination records need to be further verified. The Labour Department said it will follow up on the cases.

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Everyone who gets two doses of a coronavirus vaccine at least 14 days before are exempted from a CTN.

The joint inspection was conducted by the police along with staff from the Labour Department, the Home Affairs Department and the Leisure and Cultural Services Department.

The team visited several FDH haunts including Tamar Park in Admiralty, Victoria Park in Causeway Bay, Central and Lai Chi Kok Park) for two consecutive days, and called on the people there to comply with mask-wearing and the prohibition against public gatherings of more than four persons.

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Multi-lingual promotional materials were also distributed among the FDHs in the area.

Failure to comply with the gathering restrictions could result in a $5,000 fixed penalty being imposed on violators.

“The government will continue to conduct publicity to FDHs and remind them to strictly observe the relevant regulations, and to avoid gatherings (including in boarding facilities), food sharing and other social activities on their rest days and stay at home for rest as far as possible to safeguard their personal health,” said the statement.

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The statement also called on all FDHs to get vaccinated as soon as possible “to protect their own health and the health of their employers' families and others.”

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Nearly 2 months on, ban on passenger flights from Mla-HK remains in place

By Daisy CL Mandap

This OFW claims she was able to fly into HK from Manila on Saturday 

Hong Kong remains closed to all passengers coming from the Philippines, despite recent reports to the contrary.

Talks that some passengers from Manila have managed to enter Hong Kong became more intense over the weekend, when a group of Filipina domestic workers claimed they were able to fly in on Saturday after their recruitment agency received a “memo” allowing them entry.

A post by a certain J Lugo said she and three other Filipinas were able to board a flight to Hong Kong, but did not name the airline nor the flight number. The post was accompanied by a photo of two women wearing masks and face shields inside what looked like an airplane.

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Her caption read: “Bye 4 now Pinas, see you after 2 years.”

In a chat, she told another Hong Kong-bound worker that she and her friends were already at Kerry Hotel for their 21-day quarantine. Quite tellingly, she said there were two of them in a room, something that is not allowed for arriving foreign domestic helpers.

Lugo also told her fellow OFW to ask her agency if it didn’t get the same memo sent to their recruiter which allowed her and her friends to board a flight to Hong Kong.

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It was all a hoax, obviously, as Hong Kong’s online advisories still say that no passengers from any of the “extremely high risk” places listed as the Philippines, India, Pakistan, Nepal, South Africa and Brazil are allowed to board a flight to the city.

HK government advisory on passenger flight ban on Philippines

In fact, even transit passengers who stayed in any of the named places for two hours or more will be barred from boarding a Hong Kong-bound flight.

The advisory in the government’s dedicated website for all coronavirus-related matters states:

“All persons who have stayed in Group A1 (extremely high risk) specified places for more than two hours during the relevant period (the day of boarding for/arrival at Hong Kong or during the 21 days before that day) will not be allowed to board for Hong Kong.”

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The same advisory is posted on the website of some airlines like Cathay Pacific which simply states that any passengers who have been in the six extremely high risk places “for more than two hours in the past 21 days will not be permitted to enter Hong Kong”.

But the confusion grew when a number of OFWs desperate to take up their jobs in Hong Kong were told in a WhatsApp chat with someone handling the Consulate hotline that “hindi sarado ang Hong Kong.”(Hong Kong is not closed).

The Consulate staff even said, “Saan po ninyo nabasa or nakita na ban (sic) ang Pilipinas sa HK?” (Where did you read or see that the Philippines is banned in Hong Kong?) Told that the information came from news outlets in Hong Kong, the staff said, “Baka hindi na po yun updated.” (That’s probably not updated).

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Another worker, RM, got the same reply. “Saan po ninyo nakuha na may banned galing Pinas to HK? Paki check po sa airlines ang status ng mga flights?” (Where did you get the information that there is a ban on flights from the Philippines to Hong Kong? Please check the flight status).

Told about the misinformation, Consul General Raly Tejada said the Consulate would issue a clear advisory on the issue.

The confusion appears to have been caused by the mistaken notion that all flights from Manila to Hong Kong have been stopped. That is not entirely true because airlines still fly in from Manila, but they only carry cargo, and not passengers. They are only allowed to take in passengers on their return trip.

This explains why hundreds of people from Hong Kong are able to fly to the Philippines, but no one from there, save for a handful of seafarers who are allowed to enter through a third country, are able to come into the city.

PCG's advisory posted on Apr 19 clearly states the ban 

The ban on passenger flights from the six specified countries was imposed by Hong Kong starting Apr 20, after several people in the community were found to carry a coronavirus variant that was subsequently linked to an Indian returnee whose infection was not detected during his 21-day quarantine.

Originally meant to last for only two weeks, the ban was extended indefinitely after more variant carriers were found inside Hong Kong, but who were subsequently found to have caught the virus in their quarantine hotel.

The extended ban has added to the misery to thousands of Filipino workers who have been waiting for months to come to Hong Kong. Day in and day out, they ask if there is any new information on the ban, with many saying they had incurred a lot of debts just to secure the job that has suddenly looked out of reach.

A few say they had themselves vaccinated, hoping this would give them a better chance of being allowed in, and were dismayed when told that even this would not work, given Hong Kong’s all-out effort to achieve zero infection.

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Health experts look at rodent as possible source of Covid variant

By The SUN

The 17-year-old girl bought a chinchilla during the incubation period

Hong Kong health experts are looking into the possibility that a mutant virus with unknown source that infected a family of three in Tin Shui Wai may have come from a pet chinchilla that the index patient had bought from a pet store in Mong Kok.

This was revealed today, Jun 14, by top microbiologist Yuen Kwok-yung who also said that the 17-year-old girl who infected her mother and older sister had bought the rodent and played with it at home after taking her mask off. However, the chinchilla tested negative for the virus.

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The experts also caught some rats at an industrial estate in Tuen Mun where the tutorial school which the girl had attended and will also test them for the virus. However, the rat infestation in the place was said not to be severe.

Yuen said the source of the infection is still a mystery, but believes human-to-human transmission was most likely.

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About 140 people identified as the family’s close contacts had been put under quarantine, but none tested positive for the virus. All 850 other residents of their residential building also tested negative.

Yuen said antibody tests will be carried out on the close contacts on the 21^st day after the infection was detected to check if they had been previously infected. If anyone of them tests positive, then the source might be traced.

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Another angle being looked into is the possibility of material transmission from the food that the girl had taken from their refrigerator at home. In line with this, the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department will conduct inspections of food supplies in Tin Shui Wai.

The experts are baffled because they could not find a variant identical to the one found on the index patient from about 100,000 sets of coronavirus genomes identified from all over the world.

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Meanwhile, only one confirmed case of Covid-19 was reported today, involving a 40-year-old  woman who flew into the city from Indonesia, and started showing symptoms on Jun 13.

She became Hong Kong’s 11,878^th confirmed case.

A total of 40 cases have been reported in the past 14 days, including the three local cases found with the mutant virus.

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Migrant support groups demand swift justice for Eden

 By Daisy CL Mandap 

AMCB's announcement of a Jun 11 press conference to call justice for Eden

Friday, Jun 11, was Eden P’s 37^th birthday. Instead of celebrating, she had to go early to Hong Kong Immigration to submit a report on how her former employer had allegedly detained her at home since she arrived there in September 2020, and subjected her to repeated assaults.

In the afternoon, she went to the Labour Department to also file a report on the events that made her flee the 35-year-old employer’s house in Serenade Cove, Tsuen Wan on May 30, and inform the office that she would be helped by a human rights lawyer in pursuing her claims.

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To cap the day, Eden was given a small dinner party at the shelter where she is staying temporarily, a small way of assuring her that she is finally free of the nightmare of the past 14 months.

But even more importantly, her case was taken up on the same day by various migrant support organizations which have vowed to help her pursue justice for the alleged assault and illegal detention committed against her by her employer, who is a secondary school teacher and mother of two young boys.

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In a press conference hosted by the Asian Migrants Coordinating Body, the rights advocates likened Eden’s case to that of Erwiana Sulistyaningsih, the Indonesian domestic worker who suffered eight months of torture at the hands of her employer back in 2014.

“Before it was Erwiana, now it is Eden. Who will be next?,” asked Eni Lestari, chairperson of the International Migrants Alliance (IMA).

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AMCB said in a statement that Erwiana’s case is still fresh in the minds of many migrant workers, so Eden’s ordeal did not come as a big surprise. Still, the group said it strongly condemned the alleged abuse suffered by Eden, and called on the Hong Kong government to act fast in ensuring justice is served her.

The group’s chair, Dolores Balladares said, “The government must move fast not just to investigate the accusations of Eden against her employer, but further ensure a swift and speedy trial of her employer.”

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She also urged the government to end its so-called discriminatory policies towards FDHs like the so-called “job hopping” restriction which prohibits terminated workers from processing a new work contract in Hong Kong once Immigration deems that they changed employers on a whim.

Lestari echoed the call, saying many domestic workers are abused because of the government’s anti-migrant policies like the mandatory live-in arrangement, and giving them only 14 days to remain in Hong Kong after they are terminated by their employers.

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She cited what District Court Judge Amanda Woodcock had said in sentencing Erwiana’s employer, Law Wan-tung to six months in jail, that the horrific abuse that the helper suffered would not have happened if the government did not compel FDHs to live-in with their employers.

The pandemic has made the situation worse, she said, because many employers now use this as an excuse to forbid their domestic workers from taking a day-off, as in the case of Eden.

“Before it (day-off) was every Sunday, now it  has become a matter of negotiation,” said Lestari, citing the Hong Kong Labour Department’s advice to employers and domestic helpers to agree on when the worker can take a day-off, and hinting that the rest day could be spent in the employer’s home.

Lestari says getting a weekly rest day is a matter of human rights, even during pandemic

“This is about human rights, you need at least one day a week to rest,” said Lestari. She said workers are tired and need to relax with friends, or to meet new ones.

She called on the Labour Department to set up a hotline that MDWs could call if they are prevented from leaving their employer’s house or encounter any other difficulties relating to the pandemic.

Eden escaped from the house of her employer, Mrs Mak, early on May 30, while the woman, her husband and two young sons had gone out for the day. The Filipina had bruises all over her body, many of them healed or healing, but there were also two big contusions on her thighs and her abdomen which looked fresh. 

Eden said that she was badly assaulted by Mak on May 25 and 29, only because her 19-month-old ward was crying in both instances, and did not finish his food. 

The helper claimed that on both days she was slapped by her employer repeatedly on both cheeks, and on May 25, she was hit repeatedly with a metal food-turner on both her thighs and stomach.

The bruises on her thighs were caused by a metal food-turner, Eden claims

In the last incident, she claimed she was also punched hard on her chest and back, and then scratched on the face and back, causing both parts to hurt and bleed. But what really alarmed her was when Mak reportedly threatened to kill her.

In subsequent statements she made to police, Eden said that in the past, Mak subjected her to repeated assaults including banging her head against the wall, scratching her deeply in the back, and at one time, forcing her to eat congee mixed with dishwashing detergent.

Eden said her male employer, a physiotherapist, did not know of the assaults because Mak always hurt her when her husband was not around, and hit her only in parts covered by her clothes.

A police spokesperson said Shatin Police arrested the 35-year-old employer on May 31 but released her on the same day on police bail.

 

  

No new infection in HK as variant cluster continues to baffle experts

By Vir B. Lumicao

850 other residents of the Tin Shui Wai block where the variant patients live have tested negative

Hong Kong reported no new coronavirus case today, Jun 13, but continues to watch fewer than five preliminary positive, mostly imported cases. 

This is the sixth day that Hong Kong has not recorded a local case since June 7, when a 20-year-old female student was confirmed to carry the mutant strain of the coronavirus, the third member of her family to be found with the variant whose source remains unknown.

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The Centre for Health Protection said there are now 11,877 confirmed cases in Hong Kong.

The Hospital Authority said as at 9am today, 39 confirmed patients were being treated in 13 public hospitals and the North Lantau Hospital Hong Kong Infection Control Centre. One of them is in critical condition, another is serious and the remaining 37 patients are stable.

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A total of 40 cases have been reported in the past 14 days starting May 30, including the two sisters and their mother, all carriers of the N501Y variant, who live together in Tin Shui Wai.

The cluster was uncovered after the index patient, a 17-year-old female student, developed symptoms and was found infected after going to a community testing centre.

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No other person outside of their family has been found to carry the so-called Alpha strain of the virus first found in the United Kingdom.

Hui says the source of the family's infection most likely came from abroad

David Hui, an infectious disease expert from the Chinese University, told media people on Saturday that officials were still struggling to find the source of the girl’s highly communicable infection that snapped 42 days of no untraceable cases in the city.

Hui, who advises the government on its anti-Covid 19 campaign, said it was unlikely this case involves an undiscovered mutated strain from Hong Kong.

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 “I think it’s probably someone that has entered Hong Kong and finished the 21-day hotel quarantine with a long incubation period and then he or she developed some infection, and infected the 17-year-old girl,” Hui was quoted by RTHK as saying.

Local experts who matched the girl’s genome sequencing pattern with other cases have failed to find the infection source.

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They said this was probably due to some developing countries not doing genome sequencing frequently, thus not uploading information to the World Health Organization and other websites that would make tracing of infection source easier.

Meanwhile, the CHP reminded those who had visited specified venues under the Prevention and Control of Disease Regulation (Cap. 599J) to receive Covid-19 nucleic acid testing according to the compulsory testing notice.

The regulation requires all household members of close contacts of confirmed cases to undergo a Covid-19 nucleic acid test within a specified period published in the Gazette. Members of the public are also urged to seek medical attention early if symptoms develop and undergo testing as soon as possible.