The Macau government will no longer hire Filipinos who will enter the former Portuguese colony as tourists and will only employ Filipinos through local licensed recruitment agencies accredited with Macau recruitment agencies.
“The Macau Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China will no longer issue any more work permits to Filipino tourist workers which has been the practice for several years, to stop illegally recruited Filipinos,” according to Emmanuel Geslani, a migrant expert and a recruitment group spokesman.
Filipinos intending to work in Macau will now have to apply with local licensed recruitment agencies accredited with Macau recruitment agencies so that OFWs will be given adequate welfare and protection benefits, he said.
He said that a memorandum of understanding was signed recently by the Philippine Manpower Agencies for Macau and Association of Macau Philippine Employment Agencies in the presence of Department of Labor and Employment officials that will protect aspiring Filipinos who want to work in Macau from unscrupulous recruiters.
“The MOU also aims to effectively undertake its objectives and advocacies, not only to ensure the viability of the Macau market but more importantly to ensure the protection and welfare of the Filipino workers in Macau,” Geslani said.
Macau has been a magnet for Filipino tourist workers for the past several years with so many jobs available with the numerous casinos and hotels and the ease in getting work permits.
Thousands of Filipino household workers are now working in Macau who entered as tourists on the promise of $800 as their monthly wages, however, but only receive less than $400 by their employers who pay the illegal recruiters the cost of bringing the workers to that Chinese territory.
There are about 35,000 Filipinos working in Macau, half of them as domestic helpers and the rest as professional workers and casino and hotel employees.
“Only a small percentage of these Filipino workers are documented by the POEA. In 2018, the POEA has only 918 OFWs deployed in Macau by legitimate recruitment agencies from the Philippines,” he added.
