CRIME | At least 17 construction workers illegally hired

A local businessman is being charged over the hiring of illegal workers for civil construction as well as for the forgery of dozens of documents to support such an illegal job, the Judiciary Police (PJ) revealed yesterday in a specially organized press conference.
According to the force, a total of 17 illegal workers are currently confirmed as being involved in the case, but the PJ suspects that as the investigation continues, it will be determined that this figure is much higher.
The investigation started after a person from the mainland filed a complaint with the PJ claiming that the local man was illegally hiring workers from the mainland to perform construction work, and that the local man was forging documents for such a purpose.
The complainant told PJ that he was aware of the case because he knew this local man and had been asked to invest money into the business, and assist in recruiting workers in the mainland.
At that time, the complainant presented several documents to the PJ which included identification cards of non-resident workers (blue cards), a Macau ID card, several mainland China identification cards, and Construction Sector Occupational Safety Cards. The complainant said that all of the documents were forged, and he took them from some of the workers he helped to hire.
The complainant also told the PJ that he met the local businessman in June 2019 in Macau through a friend. At the time, the suspect said he had a company that had been assigned several construction projects in Macau and he needed some funds for investment and help in hiring manpower in the mainland.
The victim agreed to invest in the business, handing over a total of RMB300,000. He also arranged for workers from the mainland to come to Macau to work for the company.
Just one month after these workers started their job in Macau, one of them reached out to him claiming that he had been stopped from working at the construction site after the site’s security guard discovered that he was using forged documents.
Several other similar cases followed at which time the complainant called off the deal with the local businessman and requested the return of his investment money.
Since the man only returned RMB100,000, the victim decided to expose the scheme by filing a case at the PJ.
In the course of the investigation, the PJ found that there were at least 17 workers involved, but they suspect that many more had already left Macau.
They also discovered several forged documents, including identification cards and even a forged certificate to prove the authenticity of a Macau ID card, which was also a forgery.
The PJ questioned the workers and learned that they entered Macau only with their passports and without any other work-related documents or authorizations.
The workers told the PJ that they did not know the Macau ID documents and work permits in their possession were fake and they were each asked to pay a fee of MOP2,000 for the handling of the working documents before starting the job.
They also revealed that they were paid on a daily basis, earning a salary of MOP600 per day. The PJ spokesperson did not reveal at this time where the construction site was located.
In a search conducted at the suspect’s house, the PJ also found three computers. On one of them were approximately 90 document images for Macau ID cards, blue cards, and Construction Sector Occupational Safety Cards. This discovery is why the PJ suspects that the number of illegal workers might be larger than the 17 currently discovered.
Detained for questioning, the suspect refused to cooperate with the PJ and choose to remain silent.
The suspect was presented yesterday to the Public Prosecutions Office to be charged for the crimes of document forgery as well as employment of illegal workers according to Article 16 of the Law 6/2004 – Illegal Immigration Law, which states that “Anyone who constitutes an employment relationship with any individual who is not the holder of any of the documents required by law to be admitted as a worker, regardless of the nature and form of the contract, or the type of remuneration or consideration, is punishable with up to two years imprisonment.”
In the case of recidivism, the sentence can be increased to eight years imprisonment.
The PJ will continue to investigate the case in an attempt to find more suspects and workers involved, the same spokesperson said.