Society

The Tuen Ma Line will be fully operational from June 27.  It is a key section of the Central-Shatin Rail link. “The government has confirmed that the new railway is in a good and safe condition, and it is ready to operate, ” said Frank Chan, the Secretary of Transport and Housing, in a press conference today. Part of the Tuen Ma line is currently operational, providing train services between  Ma On Shan and Kai Tak. From June 27, two new stations, To Kwa Wan and Sung Wong Toi, will be added to the line. Also, Ho Man Tin station of Kwun Tong Line and Hung Hom Station of East Rail Line will have new platforms in order to serve as transit stations.  Train services will run at three-minute intervals during peak hours once the entire Tuen Ma line is running. The new line will shorten travel time by up to 19 minutes. Passengers going from Kai Tak to Tsim Sha Tsui East, for example, will not need to change trains. Currently, they have to change twice. Passengers using Octopus cards at the two new stations will get a fare reduction. Adults will get a HK$1 reduction per ride, while Child and Student Octopus Card users will get a HK$0.5 reduction. The same discounts will be extended for passengers using Kai Tak and Hin Keng station, where the discounts are currently active. The discounts apply until Jan 1 2022. Passengers taking longer journeys in some stations may be cheaper. For example, a passenger travelling from Tuen Mun to Hung Hom, will pay a discounted fare around HK$20.6 using an Adult Octopus Card But if he goes one station further to Ho Man Tin, then the discounted fare will be around HK$18.9. “The fare setting has historical reasons. We need to …

More than half of the children’s crayons and fingerpaints tested were found to release toxic metals, the Consumer Council said in a press conference today. “Although there is no immediate risk, potential long term diseases may appear,” Nora Tam Fung-yee, Chairman of the Research and Testing Committee of the Consumer Council, said in the press conference. The Consumer Council tested 12 models of crayons and seven models of fingerpaints. The blue crayon from Swiss company Caran d'Ache’s “Hobby Line 1/2 watersoluble wax pastel” had the highest amount of aluminium, exceeding the EU Toy Safety Directive limit by almost five times. “Blue and black crayons contain the most harmful elements as black coal is one of the raw materials,” said Prof. Tam in the press conference. Children’s paints in Hong Kong must comply with one of four standards, including the EU standard used in the test, according to the Hong Kong Toys and Children's Products Safety Ordinance. Over half of the tested fingerpaints failed to comply with the EU Toy Safety Directive which requires children’s paints to taste bitter so they won’t be eaten. Fingerpaints produced by Spanish companies Jovi and Jar Meló, Korean company Mungyo and US company Crayola did not contain embittering agents at the EU standard, according to the Council. The council said parents should read package instructions and select paints based on the child's age. Parents should also consider purchasing crayons with a plastic barrel to reduce risk for ingesting harmful substances and be sure children clean their hands after use. Caran d'Ache responded to the council that the product involved stopped production in 2013 and had complied with the EU standard then. New products comply with the latest standard, said the company. Jar Meló and Mungyo responded to the council that they had added embittering agents …

Residents of buildings with only one covid-19 case, including the mutant strain, will self-monitor instead of going to government quarantine centres, Dr Ronald Lam, Controller of the Centre of Health Protection, said today in a press conference. More than 1,000 residents are being released from quarantine centres, including from Kornhill and Caribbean Coast where mutant strain cases were found, after they test negative. “To prevent further transmission, a very cautious approach needs to be taken,” Dr Lam said in the press conference. Close contacts still need to quarantine, Dr Lam said, but the fully vaccinated will have seven days of home confinement plus seven days of self-monitoring. Department of Health clarified at night that close contacts still need to go to government quarantine centres plus seven days of self-monitoring. Fully vaccinated includes those with a “full course” after 14 days. People who have recovered from Covid-19 within nine months are also included. Onee Chan, a resident at Kornhill who was sent to the government quarantine centre at Penny’s Bay yesterday, said she was speechless over the new measure. She said it was not sensible to put all residents into the quarantine centre. “The requirements to release are also nonsense. It’s absolutely annoying to ask us to do testing at their centre on our own. How can they guarantee everybody to strictly follow? Self monitoring is a joke. We’ve been self monitoring ourselves for more than a year,” Ms Chan said. Shorter hotel quarantines were also announced for airport arrivals from designated countries beginning May 12. Measures for extremely high-risk and very high-risk areas, including the United Kingdom, remain unchanged. Control measures for quarantine hotels will also be reviewed, said Dr Lam.

Jean Francois Harvey from Harvey Law Group, along with over 60 immigration companies, were at the International Immigration and Property Expo on March 27. However, what Mr Harvey witnessed there left him dumbfounded. “I saw consultants openly telling people to buy start-up visas. I also saw others squarely selling jobs — it may not be a real job, but it’ll get them the visa,” Mr Harvey recounted. Paying money for a job offer is illegal in Canada, but such blatant advertising at the expo shows how many people are not aware of Canadian immigration policies, making them susceptible to misinformation and fraud. Immigration fraud has long been an issue in Hong Kong, as Mr Harvey observed throughout his 29 years as an immigration lawyer. “But now, there’s a big increase in interest in immigration, so there’s more misinformation than ever,” said Mr Harvey. The number of Hong Kong passport holders applying for temporary or permanent residency in Canada reached 8,121 in 2020, hitting its highest point in at least five years despite border closures because of Covid-19, according to Reuters. And with misinformation comes fraud. Canadian Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Marco Mendicino released a statement on March 5 to commemorate the government’s Fraud Prevention campaign, saying, “Immigration fraud targets people who want to come to Canada in good faith. Sadly, the pandemic has exacerbated these troubling activities, with new ways for dishonest individuals to defraud clients.” A 2019 investigation by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation exposed how an immigration consultancy targeted Chinese nationals and charged them up to $170,000 Canadian dollars (HK$1,052,754) for a fake job. CBC also found that Hong Kong had reported “high rates of fraud or suspected fraud, and only 15-22% of arranged employment offers were found to be genuine.” Nancy Caron, a spokesperson for Immigration, …