MANILA, Philippines -- Migrant worker groups in Macau said on Sunday they would continue their campaign against a bill imposing taxes on the deployment of foreign domestic helpers and a six-month reentry ban on foreign workers who would pre-terminate their contracts.

The Macau Migrant Rights Network said the bill published in the Legislative Assembly’s official gazette on Oct. 27 still retained “major anti-migrant provisions.” They scored Macau Secretary for Economy and Finance Francis Tam for not fulfilling promises to address concerns about the bill raised earlier by the migrant labor sector.

These developments leave no option for the migrant workers and advocates but to intensify the campaign against the bill, including raising the issue with the International Labor Organization, United Nations Committee on Ending Racial Discrimination and UN special rapporteur on human rights of migrants, MMRN spokesperson Ma. Rosa Viloria said in a statement from Macau.

The MMRN includes overseas Filipino worker (OFW) groups such as Filipino Migrants Ministry, Filipino Fellowship of the Morrison Chapel, Migrante–Macau Quezonian Macau and Jesus Is Lord Movement-Macau.

Viloria said while the six-month reentry ban would allow migrant workers to terminate their contracts as long as they give a just cause for this, this “is rather vague and the burden of proof might lie solely on the migrant worker.”

The reentry ban and levy would only be applied on non-resident workers and those who employed them, respectively, she said.

MMRN said Tam rejected appeals to exempt employers of foreign domestic workers, majority of whom are Filipinos, from paying a tax on the hiring or deploying of foreign maids in the Chinese territory.

The coalition said Tam also did not honor a promise to include regulations on the practices of placement agencies in the bill.

“A lot of these agencies charge exorbitant placement fees; confiscate identity documents especially of domestic workers; some even engage in illegal recruitment practices,” Viloria said.

She said there was also a provision for mandatory regular medical check-up of non-resident workers. But the bill did not state who would shoulder the cost for the medical tests.

Unless voided or withdrawn, the new bill would become law in the last week of April 2010, giving “enough time” for migrant workers and their advocates to campaign against it, MMRN said.

More protest actions and advocacy work could be made, said Viloria, who raised the possibility of challenging the new law "in a judicial review.”