Macau Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng ordered a blanket ban on the entry of foreign non-resident workers into Macau, starting at 0:00 Thursday, March 19, 2020.
According to the order, the aim of the entry ban is to stem the further spread of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Macau.
Based on the national One China policy, non-resident workers from the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan are excluded from the ban.
Signatories of this petition consider this measure to be extremely unfair. The absolute need of containing this epidemic and subjecting any new arrivals to a strict control (including compulsory quarantine and isolation) is understandable, but cannot lead to the denial of fundamental rights to human beings who have been working in Macau for years - people that, for different reasons, may be away at the present moment and, according to this policy, are no longer allowed to come back to their homes, to their belongings, to their families even.
We hereby kindly request to the Chief Executive of the Macau Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, Mr. Ho Iat Seng, for this decision to be withdrawn with immediate effect. We're all humans and we're all somehow bonded to this city of Macau. We can't see this happening and do nothing.
[According to data from the Macau Labour Affairs Bureau (DSAL), at the end of January, the number of non-resident workers stood at 193,498. Foreign nationals (mostly Filipinos, Vietnamese, Indonesians, Nepalese and Myanmarese) accounted for 35.5 per cent of the total number. Mainland Chinese (118,667), Hongkongers (4,456) and Taiwanese (1,689) accounted for the 64.5 per cent].
