The Public Security Police (PSP) have cancelled the stay permits of eight non-resident workers employed in Macao so far this year, after finding that they had engaged in cross-border parallel-trading.
Speaking during a current affairs phone-in programme hosted by TDM’s Chinese-language radio channel, the PSP officers said that parallel-traders are putting a burden on Covid-19 prevention and control work in Macao and the mainland.
In the wake of the detection on Monday last week of an asymptomatic Covid-19 case of a female mainlander living in Zhongshan city’s Tanzhou town who was later confirmed as having engaged in parallel-trading by using her travel permit for visiting relatives in Macao, Secretary for Security Wong Sio Chak said last week that the police had barred her from entering Macao for one year. The woman’s case sparked a huge, costly and time-consuming mass-testing drive in the Barrier Gate area. All results returned negative.
Wong said last week that the police will only impose an entry ban on those holding a travel permit for visiting relatives in Macao or other purposes after concluding that they have engaged in parallel-trading.
He underlined that the police cannot simply impose an entry ban on all those with a travel permit who have merely crossed the Macao-Zhuhai checkpoints frequently during their permitted stay in Macao.
Wong also said last week that some of those with a travel permit for visiting relatives in Macao or other purposes may need to frequently cross the border for bona fide reasons such as taking children to school.
Consequently, Wong said, the police have to investigate every case involving frequently crossing the border before deciding whether to impose an entry ban on the respective non-local residents holding a travel permit to Macao.
The PSP said later last week that they had decided to bar around 30 non-local residents from entering Macao for a period of time after concluding that they had engaged in parallel-trading.
The police will transfer cases of local residents’ parallel-trading to the Macao Customs Service for follow-up, The Macau Post Daily reported.
