Alliance for Common People Building Up Macau (API) Vice President Hoi Long Tong said yesterday that the number of non-resident workers (NRWs) in Macau is growing again after the three-year COVID-19 pandemic, now totalling about 180,000, of whom more than 60,000 are from Southeast Asia – however, Overseas Vietnamese Association in Macau President Duong Trung Duc said that the number of Vietnamese NRWs has dropped significantly compared to pre-pandemic 2019 from more than 26,000 to around 9,500 at present.
A group of Vietnamese performs during yesterday’s awareness-raising campaign at the “Three Lamps” roundabout. – Photo: Yuki Lei
Making the remarks in a speech for the Crime Prevention and Civil Defence Campaign 2024 For South East Asian Imported Workers yesterday afternoon at Rotunda de Carlos da Maia (셰쨌쵠內圓近뒈 – popularly known as Three Lamps), Hoi noted that while NRWs fill the local manpower gap, due to language barriers and cultural differences Southeast Asian NRWs face many difficulties in interacting with locals, adapting to the local work environment and coping with their daily lives, and some of them may even be prone to breaching the law inadvertently or do not know where to seek assistance when they encounter difficulties due to lack of knowledge of local laws. He also pointed out the inability of Southeast Asian NRWs to receive timely notification of the latest police warnings and information on civil defence and health, which was not, Hoi stressed, conducive to the overall law and order situation and disease prevention in Macau.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of yesterday’s event, Duc said: “Before the pandemic, the number of Vietnamese NRWs amounted to more than 26,000, but due to visa requirements for Vietnamese citizens to enter Macau and the return of Vietnamese for personal reasons and family problems, the number of Vietnamese in Macau has declined drastically,” adding he hoped the government will simplify the procedures for Vietnamese NRWs willing to come to work in Macau. He also pointed out the necessity of organising awareness-raising campaigns: “Very often, they [Vietnamese] do not understand [Macau’s laws] due to the language barrier, and occasionally they may have violated the law, but they do not even know it, and they may even be employed illegally [without knowing it]”.
As the official languages of Macau are Portuguese and Chinese, Hoi noted, Southeast Asians often encounter difficulties in receiving information from the Macau government due to the language barrier, and Macau Oversea Worker Employment Agency Association President Ao Ieong Kuong Kao told reporters that his association has set up a translation team to help Southeast Asian NRWs in particular, targeting Vietnamese, Filipinos, Myanma people and Nepali, who are the most numerous groups from Southeast Asia in Macau, adding that the translation team comprises about 10 people to help translate government information and news, regularly disseminate legal and fraud prevention information to large groups of NRWs, and assist them in solving legal and work-related problems.
Yesterday’s awareness-raising campaign featured presentations by representatives of various public entities, comprising the Unitary Police Service (SPU), Judiciary Police (PJ), Public Security Police (PSP), Fire Services Bureau (CB), Labour Affairs Bureau (DSAL), Health Bureau (SSM) and the Municipal Affairs Bureau (IAM).
According to the latest official statistics from the Labour Affairs Bureau (DSAL), the total number of NRWs amounted to 182,371 at the end of September, including 30,267 Filipinos, 8,059 Vietnamese, 7,079 Indonesians, 4,202 Myanma people and 3,757 Nepali.
