Gov’t denies discrimination in new border control measures

The Macau government defended that the new measure that prohibits the entry of non-resident workers in the city, with the exception of those from Taiwan, Hong Kong and mainland China, is not discriminatory.

“It is not a discriminatory measure […] what we want first of all is to protect Macau residents,” said Health Bureau director, Lei Chin Ion.

As of midnight of March 19 the ban on non-resident workers from outside Greater China has come into force, a measure justified by the Chief Executive as a way “to prevent the transmission of Covid-19”.

This measure also affects Portuguese who work and live in Macau, as well as thousands of other people mainly from the Philippines and Indonesia.

A Counselor of the Portuguese Communities in Macau told Lusa yesterday that the closing of the borders in the territory is discriminatory and also affecting Portuguese, who are unable to enter, putting the employment situation at risk.

On the day that the new restrictions came into force, a petition was also launched in which the authorities are called upon to withdraw the measure, as it is “extremely unfair”.

“With these seven cases, Macau had to take this step,” said Lei Chin Ion.

After 40 days without new cases of Covid-19, between Monday and seven new imported Covid-19 cases were reported, most of them non-resident workers, with this touted as the reason that has led to the strengthening of restrictions on entry into the city.

Before, Macau registered 10 cases, all of whom have already been discharged.

“Of the seven, four were non-resident workers, more than half,” said the official, stressing that it would be “irresponsible towards Macau residents and detrimental to their health” if the Government did not take this measure.

“As they have a different status, the perks are also different,” he said, referring to “foreign non-resident workers”.

The official also said that he does not trust the number of Covid-19 cases in Southeast Asian countries, from which the overwhelming majority of non-resident workers in the territory come.

“The results of the rest of the countries in Southeast Asia are not very credible […] There is a large number hidden,” he said.

Regarding the fact that these workers work in the vast majority of casinos in the territory, the official said: “This measure may affect the casinos, but it is better to affect the casinos than the whole society”, because at the moment “the casinos do not have many tourists ”and do not need as many workers.

The new coronavirus, responsible for the Covid-19 pandemic, infected more than 210,000 people worldwide, of whom more than 8,750 died.

Of the infected people, more than 84,000 recovered from the disease.

China today announced that it had no new local infections in the past 24 hours, which is the first time since the pandemic began. However, it registered 34 new imported cases.

The outbreak began in China in December and has already spread to 173 countries and territories, which has led the World Health Organization to declare a pandemic situation.

In total, since the outbreak began last December, authorities in mainland China, which excludes Macau and Hong Kong, accounted for 80,894 diagnosed infections, including 69,614 cases that have already recovered, while the total death toll stood at 3,237.

The number of active infected people in the country stood at 8,043, including 2,622 in serious condition.

In Portugal, the Directorate-General for Health increased the number of confirmed cases of infection to 642 on Wednesday, 194 more than on Tuesday. The death toll in the country has risen to two.

The countries most affected after China are Italy, with 2,978 deaths in 35,713 cases, Iran, with 1,135 deaths (17,361 cases), Spain, with 638 deaths (14,769 cases) and France with 264 deaths (9,134 cases).

In view of the pandemic’s progress, several countries have adopted exceptional measures, including the quarantine regime and border closure.