PAK TO REDUCE INBOUND GLOBAL FLIGHTS BY 20% MIGRANT STAFF ALARMED AT RULES TO MAKE JAB MUST

Islamabad, May 1: Pakistan has decided to reduce the inbound international flights up to 20 per cent of the current numbers from May 5 as part of measures to contain the spread of coronavirus in the country, authorities said on Saturday.

The National Command and Operation Center (NCOC), which is the main anti-corona body of Pakistan, said that the decision to decrease the number of inbound flights was taken in view of the prevailing pandemic situation.

In view of prevailing global and regional disease trends, Pakistan has decided to reduce inbound international travel from May 5 to May 20.

International flights to Pakistan will be reduced to 20 per cent during this period, the NCOC said in a statement.

It said that travelers from the existing list of 22 countries banned to enter Pakistan would remain in place. —

Hong Kong, May 1 : Hong Kong migrant worker groups on Saturday criticised plans to make Coronavirus vaccines compulsory for all foreign domestic helpers, labelling the move “discriminatory and unjust”.

Health officials said they were planning to roll out mandatory inoculations for the 370,000 domestic helpers in the city, mostly poorly-paid women from the Philippines and Indonesia.

Those wanting to apply for work visas — or renew their current ones — would need to show they had been vaccinated, officials said on Friday.

If the plan goes ahead it would be the first time Hong Kong has directly tied working rights for foreigners to vaccines.

“This is clearly an act of discrimination and stigmatisation against migrant domestic workers,” Dolores Balladares Pelaez, chair of United Filipinos in Hong Kong, told reporters. —