Member-agencies of the Society of Hong Kong Recruiters of the Philippines were advised to conduct an inventory of their deployed workers.
Alfredo Palmiery, president of SHARP, issued the letter-advisory to the members amid the growing unrest in Hong Kong by pro-democracy groups.
Among the information that member-agencies were asked to gather are the current addresses, contact numbers, email addresses, Facebook accounts, Messenger, and all other forms of communication of their deployed workers.
According to the group, the information gathered should be submitted to their Secretary General for ready transmittal to the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration or Hong Kong Philippine Overseas Labor Office in case of any mandatory evacuation or repatriation.
SHARP said the information will be very useful in the event they are repatriated for their re-deployment to other countries with the member associations of the Coalition of Licensed Agencies, the only umbrella organization recognized by the Department of Labor and Employment and POEA with a membership of 400 licensed agencies deploying household service workers.
In the advisory, domestic helpers were also advised to stay away from rallies or demonstrations, avoid wearing black or white clothing.
They were also asked to avoid unnecessary errands near demonstration sites, and instruct counterpart agencies to pick up arriving workers at the Hong Kong International Airport and also to provide arriving workers with HK SIM cards for their use upon arrival in Hong Kong. (Leslie Aquino)