 |
| PCG's graph detailing when a Filipino DH must return home |
The Philippine Consulate has just issued a reminder
telling all Filipino domestic workers that they must return home before their
current employment contract ends.
The new rule supersedes all provisional measures taken
by Hong Kong Immigration to address the difficulties encountered by migrant
workers in returning to their home countries due to travel restrictions imposed
amid the pandemic.
A diagram posted on the Consulate’s website today, Feb
8, includes two dates which indicate when a FDW still under contract must “exit”
or go back home.
If the worker’s extended visa due to “deferred home leave”
will expire on or before Apr 30 this year, he or she may apply for another
year-long extension of the visa with the Immigration Department, but MUST still
exit to the Philippines before the expiration of the visa extension.
If the extended visa expires from May 1 onwards, the
worker will have to exit before the date indicated. For example, if the visa expires
exactly on May 1, the worker will have to fly home no later than Apr 30, then return
to Hong Kong to complete her contract.
The rule remains the same for those who have completed
their contracts, or whose contracts were terminated prematurely.
Those who finished their two-year contract may ask
Immigration to defer their mandatory exit from Hong Kong for no longer than one
year. They will no longer be granted an extension after this, so they should
exit before the extended visa expires.
If they do not wish to defer their home leave they
should leave Hong Kong before starting to work under the new contract.
For all terminated workers, the 14-day rule remains.
This means, they have to leave Hong Kong within 14 days after their contracts
are deemed terminated.
Despite the exhaustive explanation, many questions
remain, and foremost of these is whether a FDW can go elsewhere outside Hong
Kong, including Macau, to be deemed as having satisfied Immigration’s policy of
requiring all FDWs to exit Hong Kong every two years, of after each contract.
The answer to this, as many FDWs who have taken this
route recently will attest, is yes.
However, Philippine policy directions may differ, as
the government requires all overseas Filipino workers to return home after
completing each two-year contract.
Why is this so, and what are the possible consequences
of preferring to exit to Macau, instead of going back to the Philippines at the
end of each contract?
We will try to get the answer to these questions straight
from Consul Paul Saret, head of the assistance to nationals section of the
Consulate, when we talk to him live on Facebook in tonight’s The SUN
Interviews, which will air starting at 9:30pm.
.jpg)
.jpg)
