Manila to ask Beijing to legitimise status of up to 200,000 domestic workers illegally on mainland
Philippine labour minister also plans to ask authorities to allow more workers to come as demand grows for English-speaking environment at home
The Philippines’ new labour and employment minister will visit China next month to push for allowing Filipinos to work legally as domestic workers on the mainland, revealing that up to 200,000 of them are currently working there illegally.
Speaking in Hong Kong on Sunday, Silvestre Bello described the number of Filipino domestic helpers working illegally across the border as “alarming”, as he revealed plans to ask Beijing to legalise their status.
“I intend to pursue my plan to visit China, maybe Beijing, and talk to the authorities on how to legitimise the stay of our overseas workers and at the same time look at the possibilities of bringing in more workers under legitimate circumstances,” the minister said.
“After my visit to Oslo, I may join our president [Rodrigo Duterte] who earlier intimated to me his intention to visit China,” he added. “So it could be the end of October, unless he decides to go first to Saudi Arabia.”
While the Hong Kong government has for many years fully opened the door to maids from the Philippines, Indonesia and other countries, the mainland has a different policy.