1,300 Pinoy workers affected by 14-day Hong Kong travel ban –POEA

About 1,300 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) will be barred from entering Hong Kong after the special administrative region's government suspended travel coming from the Philippines, India, and Pakistan for two weeks due to a COVID-19 strain, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) said on Monday.

During a Department of Labor and Employment press briefing, POEA Administrator Attorney Bernard Olalia said about half of 2,600 workers bound for Hong Kong would be affected by the travel restriction.

"Magkakaroon ng dalawang linggo ng temporary suspension of deployment dahil sarado ang kanilang border dahil sa pandemya. So kalahati ng 2,600 [Filipino workers] hindi makakaalis. So more or less nasa 1,300 apektado doon sa pagpunta ng bansang Hong Kong," explained Olalia, adding that most of these OFWs were domestic workers.

(With the temporary suspension in deployment, half of the 2,600 workers can't leave so more or less 1,300 workers will be affected.)

However, Olalia said the processing and issuance of Overseas Employment Certifications (OECs) would continue despite the travel ban in other countries.

"Kahit may border closure or temporary suspension of flights, ang ating POLO (Philippine Overseas Labor and Office), POEA ay patuloy sa pagpoproseso ng documents," Olalia said.

(We will continue to process documents even with the border closure or suspension of flights.)

"Ibig sabihin ang POLO tuloy po yan. Ang accreditation sa POEA tuloy po yan, kasi may 60 days na validity period ang OEC so kahit may temporary suspension mag aantay sila pagnalift iyon. Kapag nalift in two weeks time, valid pa rin yung OEC na na-issue," he added.

(Because the OEC has a validity period of 60 days, they will have to wait until the temporary travel ban is lifted.)

Before the pandemic, Olalia said an average of 13,000 Filipinos would go to work in Hong Kong every month. It decreased to 2,600 monthly due to lockdown restrictions from the pandemic.

Olalia noted that Hong Kong is the fourth top destination for Filipinos looking for more job opportunities abroad.

For OFWs with canceled flights due to the Hong Kong travel ban, Olalia said they can coordinate their concerns with their concerned private recruitment agencies.

"Ang private recruitment agency, sila po ang may coordination sa stranded OFWs. May 2016 rules na kung saan inamend at pinalawig natin yung tinatawag na monitoring at assistance sa OFWs to include yung ating mga stranded," he added.

(There is a private recruitment agency, they will coordinate with stranded OFWs. We have rules in 2016, which we amended, and extended monitoring and assistance to OFWs, including those who are stranded.)

The Hong Kong government announced that flights coming from India, Pakistan, and the Philippines would be suspended for 14 days starting midnight of April 20, Tuesday.

"From midnight on April 20, all passenger flights from such places will be prohibited from landing in Hong Kong for 14 days," read the announcement.

The Hong Kong government imposed the travel ban after it detected an N501Y mutant strain for the first time in its community.

"It applied the criteria of the newly implemented place-specific flight suspension mechanism retrospectively for 14 days on places where there had been imported cases confirmed by arrival tests that carried the N501Y mutant strain," the government said.

"India, Pakistan, and the Philippines all had a seven-day cumulative number of relevant cases that reached the criteria in the past 14 days," the Hong Kong government also noted. — DVM, GMA News