Local students left stranded in the UK by travel restrictions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic told Macau News Agency that they have been feeling frustrated by the lack of response by Macau authorities with regards to finding ways for them to return to the city.
Between March 19-31, local authorities arranged a special channel to transport Macau residents and students arriving from overseas at the Hong Kong International Airport to Macau via the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge (HZMB) to undergo medical observation in designated locations.
During this period, more than 2,000 people, mostly local students returning from overseas, were subject to a 14-day medical observation in about 12 local hotels.
However, since the end of March, with most flights to the region being suspended, most of these students have struggled to find ways to return.
At the same time, Hong Kong authorities currently deny entry to non-Hong Kong residents if they have been to any overseas countries and regions in the last 14 days, effectively ruling out the Hong Kong International Airport as an option for returning residents and forcing residents to find alternative flight routes in an already scarce list of options.
Alex, an 18-year-old Macau student studying in Gillingham, Kent, told MNA that Macau authorities should negotiate with the Hong Kong government the reopening of its special channel through the HZMB so that Macau residents can return.
Recently, Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam indicated that transit at the HKIA would resume gradually from June 1, which gave some hope to these students that they would be able to find a way back through the SAR.
“I and a few other students have planned to return to Macau at the beginning of June and have already purchased tickets, but if the [channel] is not reopened we will be stuck in the airport”, Alex noted.
The Tourism Crisis Management Office (GGCT) told MNA that since March 23 it has received a total of 26 requests from residents in the UK asking to be assisted with returning to Macau due to travel restrictions caused by the pandemic.
Meanwhile, this week local health authorities revealed that there are still about 400 local students abroad wanting to return to Macau during the Summer break, and that they are still evaluating methods to allow them to return.
“They were just lying, no one has contacted any of us to provide any help. We hope that we can use the force of public opinion to put some pressure on the government”, Alex told MNA.
Miss Wong, a Macau student currently studying in Newcastle, told MNA that she got stranded when the government stopped the special channel set to carry residents from the Hong Kong airport.
“I couldn’t leave by the deadline because I’m doing my MBA and it’s a different program with a different schedule and arrangement. So we all had to stay here to wait until the school made the official announcement about the corporate projects”, Wong said.
Wong is currently renting a private flat in the UK city and is not living in a student accommodation, which she says has made her housing situation harder to resolve considering the circumstances.
“I tried to contact all the relevant departments, including the Chinese ambassador, but [got] no response at all. The Macau government simply gave up on us. The things they said in the press conference every day are not true”, Wong stated, also criticising the Telegram group chat created by the GGCT to discuss matters related to the stranded students in the UK.
“They hardly provided us with any assistance, and most of the time they simply ignored the opinions we expressed in the group.”
A similar opinion was expressed by Selina, a local 19-year-old student who has been studying in the UK for about five years.
According to Selina, students stranded in the UK have been trying to contact several different Macau government departments, including posting comments on the Chief Executive’s Facebook page, and even started a petition to try and pressure authorities for assistance.
“Whenever we come up with a question [in the government Telegram group], they always ask us to contact other departments; however, when we do, they will only say they are not sure about the answer and only ask us to keep paying attention to updates, instead of coming up with a solution for the problem”, Selina noted.
“A lot of people are quite mad with the government’s policies and how they react to our requests […] They just keep on asking us to contact the Chinese Consulate in the UK, but they can’t help us. We phoned them several times, but they always say they don’t have any solutions to help us go back”, Selina noted.
Recently, health authorities stated that the GGCT evaluates requests on a case-by-case basis, and has been giving suggestions to some residents as to how to return through connecting flights stopping in Australia and Japan.
Selina indicates that some students also attempted to arrange flights to Hong Kong through South Korea some weeks ago, but later realised that all flights had been cancelled.
However, local students have also faced difficulties fulfilling the requirements set by Macau authorities that Macau residents intending to enter the SAR are to present a Covid-19 nucleic acid test report in order to be allowed to board a plane.
“Everyone following the news can see that the pandemic situation in the UK is not good. There are a lot of people infected, and there’s not enough hospital space for treatments, so how can we find a place to take a Covid-19 test?”, the university student added.
“They repeatedly ask us to solve the problems they created […] It was impossible for us to do the test at the start of the breakout causing us to be stuck here. When we reported this to the government, they said we would have to figure it out ourselves”, Alex noted.
The UK has reported a total of 37,837 Covid-19-related deaths as of today, with almost four million tests carried out and 269,127 positive results.
A level 4 alert has been raised by UK authorities, indicating that the epidemic “is in general circulation” and that the “transmission is high or rising exponentially”, with social-distancing regulations in force since March remaining unchanged.
“Parents are very nervous about us being here by ourselves, and some students have urgent reasons to return quickly”, she noted.
Selina herself was unable to attend a family member’s funeral due to the situation.
“We’ve tried so hard to reach out to the government […] it’s really disappointing […] The government says that, as Macau residents, we have the right to come back; but their behaviour is telling us they don’t really want us to come back and ruin their record of no new Covid-19 cases”, she stated.
Macau has not reported any new Covid-19 cases for about 50 consecutive days. A total of 45 cases have been reported so far, all already discharged, with the majority comprising local residents who returned from overseas to the city in March.
*Student names in the article have been altered to protect their identity.
