Domestic helpers in Hong Kong protest against plan to open and inspect cargo boxes

About 200 domestic helpers and their supporters marched yesterday to the Philippine consulate to protest against a controversial government directive to open and inspect cargo boxes the nation’s overseas workers send home.

The authorities say the boxes are being used to smuggle appliances and other high-value items, while the marchers accused the Philippine government of trying to pilfer items they had painstakingly saved for.

Starting at Chater Garden in Central, the Filipino migrant workers chanted “no fees” as they marched in procession to their home country’s consulate in Admiralty.

The marchers’ representative handed a petition letter to a consulate representative. The petition, which march organisers said was signed by about 100 migrant workers’ organisations, included demands, among others, for the scrapping of the plan to inspect boxes and tax goods, as well as the resignation of customs commissioner Alberto Lina.

The Philippine Daily Inquirer newspaper reported on Saturday that the public outcry from internet users and families of overseas Filipino workers prompted President Benigno Aquino to stop Lina’s order, which was issued on Monday. Aquino instructed customs officers to instead use X-ray machines to inspect cargo boxes, and to open them only if suspicious items were detected.

But the marchers yesterday said Aquino’s “partial backtracking” was inadequate.