Macau placed under Irish travel alert

Macau may have been accidentally placed under a travel warning by Ireland.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade of the Republic of Ireland has posted on its website a travel warning to the Chinese Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macau.

The country’s travel warning, officially known as the “Security Status”, has four tiers: from “normal precautions” to “do not travel”, which is the most severe warning.

Currently, both Macau and Hong Kong are at the second tier, known as “high degree of caution”.

Besides Ireland, the U.K., Japan, South Korea, the U.S., Australia and Canada have issued travel warnings or cautions on Hong Kong. Among these countries, Japan made special notes on the attack that took place in Yuen Long, Hong Kong.

Macau’s Tourism Crisis Management Office has also told residents to exercise caution during their trips to Hong Kong.

The Irish department has listed Macau and Hong Kong on the same webpage, leading some observers to suggest that the country follows the authority of its consulates rather than the actual places concerned.

Furthermore, the majority of content focuses on Hong Kong. For example, the text starts off by noting that “there have been a number of large-scale demonstrations in Hong Kong in recent weeks protesting changes to Hong Kong’s extradition laws.”

“While the protests have been mostly peaceful, isolated clashes between a small minority of the protestors and the police have taken place, which saw the deployment of tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets by the police in an effort to restore order.”

The first two paragraphs of the text do not make reference to Macau, however the third one notes: “If you are planning a trip to Hong Kong S.A.R. or Macau S.A.R. we advise you to take a high degree of caution.”

“Hong Kong and Macau are generally stable societies,” the webpage continues. “On occasion, however, there have been some demonstrations and civil unrest. Please exercise caution if in the proximity of a demonstration and take all reasonable precautions for your physical safety and against petty crime in such circumstances.”

In response to the situation, vice director-general of Association of Synergy of Macau, Johnson Ian, said that it is not reasonable to apply a travel warning to Macau.

He pointed out that in 2003, when SARS devastated Hong Kong, Macau was not listed under any travel warning. Ian urged the government to request a change through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Staff reporter