London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Sep 18, 2025

Overseas students urge Hong Kong to recognise Covid-19 jabs records

Overseas students urge Hong Kong to recognise Covid-19 jabs records

Fully vaccinated students who previously tried to fly to Hong Kong from Philippines and Indonesia say existing policy is discriminatory.

Stranded international students studying at Hong Kong universities are pleading to be given the same deal as foreign domestic helpers on Covid-19
vaccine recognition so they can resume face-to-face studies.

Fully vaccinated students who had attempted to fly to Hong Kong from the Philippines and Indonesia in the past academic year said the existing policy was discriminatory. Some had never set foot on campus since enrolling.

“The government recognises Indonesia’s vaccination record for domestic helpers but not for other Hong Kong residents like us? How are we any different?” a third-year global economics and finance student at Chinese University said on Saturday. “It has been a roller coaster of emotions for the past two years in trying to return to Hong Kong, especially these past few months.”

Covid-19 vaccine records for helpers from the Philippines will be accepted.


The 20-year-old, who declined to be named, has not been on campus since November 2019 when her university told foreign students to go home because of the social unrest rocking the city.

The government recently struck bilateral deals with Indonesia and the Philippines to accept helpers’ Covid-19 inoculation certificates, paving the way for the workers to come to Hong Kong to alleviate a shortage. But the arrangements triggered complaints as many other people and groups were excluded.

Students, business travellers and other workers who received jabs in the two Southeast Asian countries were not given the same treatment.

Under border control measures, only travellers with recognised certificates from the two countries can enter Hong Kong and they must undergo 21 days of quarantine.

Some university students stuck in Indonesia said the government’s move was to suit its own needs.

Year-four student Vanessa, studying for a degree in marketing with data science at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), said: “Not only am I unable to get hands-on class experience, it has also become harder to find internships since they require the physical presence of interns yet it is impossible to travel back to Hong Kong.”

The 21-year-old returned home after classes went online in January 2020.

Another Indonesian student, who has yet to step foot on the University of Hong Kong campus, was worried about her studies.

“I am majoring in design+ which is a very hands-on and practical major, so it’s getting harder to do classes remotely … I am currently the only one left doing [practical classes] online for my major, there is a fear of getting left [behind],” said the 19-year-old second-year student, who declined to give her name.

Education University PhD student Charla Rochella Santiago, 34, from the Philippines, said the city’s travel restrictions had been unpredictable. She considered travelling to a third country for 21 days to enter Hong Kong but could not afford it.

“I am appalled to realise that there were a lot of us who could not set a concrete plan on travelling because of the current restrictions in place. Moreover, isn’t it a riskier move to travel alone, travel farther, and expose myself to more areas than I am currently exposed to?” the education research student said.

Hong Kong has strict regulations for “Group A” countries deemed to have the highest Covid-19 risk. Among the 25 countries in the group are Britain, the United States and the two Southeast Asian nations.

People stuck in Group A places can return if they have been vaccinated in Hong Kong, mainland China or countries deemed by the World Health Organization (WHO) as having “stringent regulatory authorities” (SRAs). But they all must quarantine for 21 days on arrival.

As Indonesia and the Philippines did not have SRAs, Hong Kong required a special arrangement for helpers to return.

Previous bans on flights from the two countries, which supply most of the city’s 370,000-strong workforce of domestic helpers, made it difficult for workers to enter Hong Kong in the past year.

The WHO’s list of 36 countries with SRAs does not include India, Pakistan, Malaysia or Turkey – also classed as Group A – meaning students from these places are facing the same situation.

Although local universities are starting to return to face-to-face teaching they are also accommodating stranded students.

An HKUST spokesman said any classes containing stranded students would be mixed mode, involving online teaching. At Chinese University, special arrangements would be made for anyone affected by travel restrictions, a spokesman said.

A Polytechnic University spokesman said its courses would be face-to-face and online simultaneously in semester one but students outside Hong Kong were advised to “make advanced arrangements” to come to the city.

None of the universities commented on whether they had lobbied the government to reopen the border to international students.

The Post has contacted the government and the Philippine and Indonesian consulates for comment.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
US Tech Giants Pledge Billions to UK AI Infrastructure Following Starmer's Call
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
DeepMind and OpenAI Achieve Gold at ‘Coding Olympics’ in AI Milestone
SEC Allows Public Companies to Block Investors from Class-Action Lawsuits
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Federal Reserve Cuts Rates by Quarter Point and Signals More to Come
Effective and Impressive Generation Z Protest: Images from the Riots in Nepal
European manufacturers against ban on polluting cars: "The industry may collapse"
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Trump: Cancel quarterly company reports and settle for reporting once every six months
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
US Launches New Pilot Program to Accelerate eVTOL Air Taxi Deployment
Christian Brueckner Released from German Prison after Serving Unrelated Sentence
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Hong Kong Industry Group Calls for HK$20 Billion Support Fund to Ease Property Market Stress
Joe Biden’s Post-Presidency Speaking Fees Face Weak Demand amid Corporate Reluctance
Charlie Kirk's murder will break the left's hateful cancel tactics
Kash Patel erupts at ‘buffoon’ Sen. Adam Schiff over Russiagate: ‘You are the biggest fraud’
Homeland Security says Emmy speech ‘fanning the flames of hatred’ after Einbinder’s ‘F— ICE’ remark
Charlie Kirk’s Alleged Assassin Tyler Robinson Faces Death Penalty as Charges Formally Announced
Actor, director, environmentalist Robert Redford dies at 89
The conservative right spreads westward: a huge achievement for 'Alternative for Germany' in local elections
JD Vance Says There Is “No Unity” with Those Who Celebrate Charlie Kirk’s Killing, and he is right!
Trump sues the 'New York Times' for an astronomical sum of 15 billion dollars
Florida Hospital Welcomes Its Largest-Ever Baby: Annan, Nearly Fourteen Pounds at Birth
U.S. and Britain Poised to Finalize Over $10 Billion in High-Tech, Nuclear and Defense Deals During Trump State Visit
China Finds Nvidia Violated Antitrust Laws in Mellanox Deal, Deepens Trade Tensions with US
US Air Force Begins Modifications on Qatar-Donated Jet Amid Plans to Use It as Air Force One
Pope Leo Warns of Societal Crisis Over Mega-CEO Pay, Citing Tesla’s Proposed Trillion-Dollar Package
Poland Green-Lights NATO Deployment in Response to Major Russian Drone Incursion
Elon Musk Retakes Lead as World’s Richest After Brief Ellison Surge
U.S. and China Agree on Framework to Shift TikTok to American Ownership
London Daily Podcast: London Massive Pro Democracy Rally, Musk Support, UK Economic Data and Premier League Results Mark Eventful Weekend
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Le Pen Tightens the Pressure on Macron as France Edges Toward Political Breakdown
Musk calls for new UK government at huge pro-democracy rally in London, but Britons have been brainwashed to obey instead of fighting for their human rights
Elon Musk responds to post calling for the murder of Erika Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk: 'Either we fight back or they will kill us'
Czech Republic signs €1.34 billion contract for Leopard 2A8 main battle tanks with delivery from 2028
USA: Office Depot Employees Refused to Print Poster in Memory of Charlie Kirk – and Were Fired
Proposed U.S. Bill Would Allow Civil Suits Against Judges Who Release Repeat Violent Offenders
Penske Media Sues Google Over “AI Overviews,” Claiming It Uses Journalism Without Consent and Destroys Traffic
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
French Debt Downgrade Piles Pressure on Macron’s New Prime Minister
US and UK Near Tech, Nuclear and Whisky Deals Ahead of Trump Trip
One in Three Europeans Now Uses TikTok, According to the Chinese Tech Giant
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
NATO Deploys ‘Eastern Sentry’ After Russian Drones Violate Polish Airspace
Anesthesiologist Left Operation Mid-Surgery to Have Sex with Nurse
Tens of Thousands of Young Chinese Get Up Every Morning and Go to Work Where They Do Nothing
×