Hong Kong looking to build more hostels for imported construction workers, development secretary says
Hong Kong Free Press
The government plans to build more hostels for imported construction workers as a makeshift dormitory capable of accommodating 7,000 is expected to fill up around mid-2024, Secretary for Development Bernadette Linn has said.
Speaking at the Legislative Council on Wednesday, Linn said the government had approved some 4,600 applications for the first round of the labour import scheme, and expected the dormitory at Tam Mei in Yuen Long – previously a Covid isolation facility – to be full up next year.
“Provided the trend of about 4,600 applications continues in the second round, we expect the Tam Mei dormitory may fill up by the second or third quarter next year,” she said.
Linn said in a written reply to lawmaker Stanley Ng that the hostels had cultural and recreational facilities, pantries, laundry rooms, and medical service rooms “to meet the daily needs of the imported labour.”
The city’s construction sector aims to hire up to 12,000 non-local workers under a labour import scheme designed to attract 20,000 workers to ease a widespread manpower shortage. Workers must live in designated premises, including the Tam Mei site managed by the Construction Industry Council.
The remaining 8,000 workers would go to the transport sector, including 6,300 for the aviation industry and 1,700 minibus and coach drivers.
Linn said the government was looking for another site in the New Territories and was considering converting more makeshift Covid hospitals into lodgings for non-local workers.
She told real estate sector lawmaker Louis Loong that the 12,000 construction workers would focus on public works, adding that the labour sector was more confident in the government’s ability to address potential abuses of the scheme.
Regarding concerns that private projects also faced a manpower shortage, Linn said private contractors would stand a better chance of hiring imported workers if they could prove they needed workers with specific skills.
The manpower drive comes amid planning for major infrastructure projects. These include the Northern Metropolis plan in the northern New Territories announced in 2021 and slated to provide more than 500,000 new flats, a logistics hub, and an innovation and tech zone.
Addressing concerns from lawmaker Gary Zhang that the workers would be subject to “military-style” controls, Linn said monitoring their movements in and out of living quarters would make it easier for employers to arrange transport by shuttle bus.
“When they go back to the hostel after dinner, or where they go over the weekend – none of that will actually be controlled,” she said.
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