The Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Chris Sun, met the media today (December 2) with the Secretary for Migrant Workers of the Philippines, Mr Hans Leo J. Cacdac, regarding the follow-up work on the fire at Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po. Following are Mr Sun's remarks at the media session:
 
Reporter: Good afternoon, Mr Sun. You mentioned that there will be $800,000 offered to the deceased foreign domestic helpers. Would this be for their families? And how can the families claim this amount of money? And also, who will be responsible for the funeral expenses of the helpers who lost their lives in this tragedy? Is it still the employer in this case?
 
Secretary for Labour and Welfare: Thank you. We are working closely with the Consulate for those who are going to claim assistance from us. We will work through for the Filipinos with the PCG - the Consul Generals of the Philippines. Number one is to identify and to confirm that they are the ones, and then we are going to distribute through the Labour Department (LD) in Hong Kong where we will work with the Consulate. The key is to make sure that only the genuine family members are eligible to claim the financial assistance for those helpers who died in the incident. Rest assured, we will work closely with the Consulate to make sure that the money is distributed to the right people. I think this is very important.
    
     For the funeral expenses, there are two parts of it. One part is already covered by the statutory requirement. For all the standard contracts we are issuing for every domestic helper in Hong Kong, there is a standard clause to cover funeral expenses. On top of the existing legal provision, we also provide them with a one-off non-accountable $50,000 relating to their funeral. This is an additional add-on.
 
Reporter: Thank you, Mr Sun, for the generous support for migrant domestic workers. Indeed, the payout is generous enough. I would just like to ask if this is separate from whatever employee compensation that our migrant workers are entitled to under the law, because right now as I know it stands at more than $500,000 in case of death, and there are separate provisions for those who are injured. If they are entitled to this, will the Hong Kong LD assist them in claiming for their compensation? Thank you.
 
Secretary for Labour and Welfare: You can rest assured, as I have made clear in my opening remarks, the LD will help them claim the entitlement under the law. As you said, for those who died, they are entitled to receive at least around $500,000 as compensation. You can rest assured that we will do our utmost to make sure they receive it. What I am saying is, apart from what is provided under the law, this time around, there will be an extra one-off financial assistance, which amounts to $250,000 for those who died.
 
Reporter: Thank you very much. For those migrant domestic workers among the survivors, if some of them are recovering, and for example they do not have any more employment with their employers in Tai Po, would they be given an extension of their 14-day visas in order to look for a job if they wish to continue their employment in Hong Kong?
 
Secretary for Labour and Welfare: Thank you. We have discussed this with the Immigration Department, so you can have reassurance that they will be as flexible as possible to help the workers. It depends on each and every individual case, but please be assured that we will be as flexible and helpful as possible to help those who are affected and tragically impacted.

Ends/Tuesday, December 2, 2025
Issued at HKT 18:50

NNNN