According to Security secretary Ambrose Lee, Hong Kong has approved some 238 applications from various foreign professionals under the Quality Migrant Admission Scheme launched in 2006. The scheme is intended to attract talented and quality migrants from overseas and Mainland China to live and work in Hong Kong.
Two Hong Kong-based overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), Marilyn Sape and Rosemarie Bernil, were duped into paying some $20,085 each to an employment agency that offered them jobs in the UK. However, when the two workers changed their mind and decided to get their money back, the employment agency closed down and filed for bankruptcy. Sape and Bernil had fallen for the agency's line that they have to secure a student visa from the British consulate in Hong Kong before they could work as caregivers in the UK. Under the said scheme, caregiver applicants should allegedly study for two to three years at the Queen Elizabeth House, a nursing home in Berkeley Kent to get National Vocational Qualification while also working in the said facility as interns. Philippine assistant labor attaché Nida Romulo advised OFWs seeking alternative employment outside of Hong Kong to secure an employment visa, if their intention is to work in the destination country.
Sources: "238 approved under quality migrant scheme," news.gov.hk, 7 September 2007; Smiley Julve, "OFWs in HK warned vs student visa offers to UK," GMANews.TV, 15 September 2007