Macau (MNA) – Legislator Song Pek Kei said at the 2019 Policy Address session that non-resident workers in Macau are a “threat to internal security”, adding that many “commit crimes” and “want their employers to fire them”.
“There are about 186,000 non-resident workers in Macau, they have contributed greatly to the city economic development but our oversight process has defects when managing them. They have also committed crimes and are a threat to internal security,” the legislator said at a Legislative Assembly (AL) plenary session with the Secretary for Security, Wong Sio Chak.
Song Pek Kei is a directly elected legislator through the Macau United Citizens Association, an association linked to former legislator and businessman Chang Meng Kam.
The legislator made the comments when addressing the Secretary on how to prevent illegal rentals in the city, with Song going on to comment that non-resident workers tend to “live by the dozens in the same house” breaching safety regulations.
At one point Song stated that non-resident workers “win little, and save a lot” and that they looked intentionally to be fired from their jobs by “not working properly”.
The legislator asked Secretary Wong if current legislation on illegal rentals could be revised from a crime with only administrative sanctions to a crime that could incur in prison sentences.
“The current process implies an administrative decision with the accused able to appeal, a system that can make the all to drag on. It does not solve the problem,” she stated.
In April of this year the Macau tourism services indicated that some 1,136 housing units had been closed down for providing illegal rental services, since a law on illegal accommodation provision was enforced on August, 2010.
The Secretary responded that the fact that Macau received about 30 million people annually posed a great security challenge to the authorities, but that increasing the penalties would lead to more lengthy trial procedures and increase the courts workload.
“I have previously, some 10 years ago, already said that this problem could be solved by registering all leased units, but I was told it was a very sensitive topic because people don’t like to reveal how many houses they have. I had to remove my opinion. For me this would be the best way to solve it, the Financial Services Bureau (DSF) could keep the records,” the Secretary stated.
Wong also added that lack of knowledge of the Macau system and regulations sometimes could lead non-resident workers to unintentionally commit crimes or be scammed.
