More than a thousand non-resident workers (TNR) have lost their jobs since the beginning of the pandemic in January, and hundreds are stranded in Macau, prevented from returning to their countries of origin.
Without work and without a salary, many people face financial difficulties. 35 weeks pregnant and with a young daughter in her care, Imelda prays for the day the planes return to the skies to return home.
The great plague of 2020 had not yet gained proportions of global calamity when it first crawled Imelda. The new coronavirus was still little more than a dark and misunderstood mystery when, in January, her husband received an unwanted verdict: “He was unable to renew his employment contract. Without a new job he was forced to return to the Philippines. I stayed with my daughter in Macau ”, explains the migrant worker.
By the beginning of April, the world had already been protected by quarantines, restrictions and confinements, the lagelo applied to Imelda another blow. Waiting for her second child, the Filipina is put on lay-off by the gambling operator she works for: “My employer made me sign an agreement in which he proposed to me and other colleagues that we receive half the salary that we earned. If I say that he made us sign it, it is because I was not inclined to accept the proposal, but I had no choice ”, he assumes. “I was told that it was better to receive half the salary than not to receive it.”
The third feint of fate – a revenge with the seal of the covid-19 – has not yet materialized, but it has been announced for a long time. Imelda, 30 years old, hides behind a fictitious name – “I am afraid of losing my job”, he tells Plataforma. The birth is scheduled for mid-June and the mother has always wanted the birth to happen in the Philippines. “To be honest, I can’t afford the cost of a birth in Macau. That’s why I want to go back, ”says Imelda.
The community has called for a new repatriation flight to Manila to take about three hundred Filipino workers stranded in the city. But time does not play in Imelda’s favor: “I am already in my 35th week of pregnancy and travel is discouraged from the 36th”.
Faced with the case of Imelda, the Directorate of Health Services recalls what has already been officially said for situations of non-resident parturients: the Government admits mechanisms of economic relief, provided that after delivery a proof of need is presented . The decision is reserved for the Director of Health Services.
The benefit of reduced hospital fees has been attributed for a variety of reasons, but for them to be granted they have to be done in a reasoned manner, the authorities also explain.
Over a thousand at risk
The difficulties that Imelda faces are far from being a unique case among the Filipino community in Macao. According to the two main associations that defend the rights of migrant workers, since the beginning of the pandemic in January, more than one and a half thousand Filipino immigrants have been made redundant. Many of them have still not managed to return to the archipelago: “Of the total of those who lost their jobs, 220 received financial aid from the Consulate General of the Philippines. Many worked for companies, but there are also domestic workers among those affected, ”explains Jassy Santos, director of Progressive Labor Union of Domestic Workers. “As far as I know, more than 300 workers have registered with the Consulate to be covered by an eventual second repatriation flight. The number may be higher, because there are eighty other people who have the support of their bosses to return, but they have no chance because there are no flights ”, adds Benedicta Taberdo Palcon, president of Greens Philippines Migran Workers Union.
These difficulties are confirmed by Caritas Macau, which has seen the number of requests for assistance addressed to it increase substantially in recent weeks. The outlook even led the organization led by Paul Pun to adopt exceptional measures: “We are preparing the distribution of checks for 1,000 patacas for those who really need help. It is not a large amount, but for some of these people it is something that makes a difference. I don’t know how many checks we will be able to distribute, but it is necessary to start somewhere ”, maintains the secretary general of Caritas.
Petition asks for cards for TNR ”s
More than 3,000 people have already signed the petition requesting the Government that TNRs be also covered by the electronic consumption card distributed by the Executive to help revive Macau’s economy.
The adhesion to the initiative surprised businessman Nelson Rocha. For the petitioner’s promoter, the attribution of consumer cards or coupons to TNR’s would be a way of recognizing the economic contribution that migrants make to the MSAR: “Macau is, nevertheless, one of the few places that have financial stability to achieve help these people. As the objective is to promote consumption at the local level, I think it made sense that they were included ”, he adds.
