Restaurant owner objects to ‘draconian’ decisions

A Chinese restaurateur is claiming he was excessively punished by the Employment and Training Corporation and by the Department of Citizenship after he illegally employed a fellow countryman.

Hou Wen Tao, the owner of Golden Dragon, in Marsascala said in a judicial protest that his work and residence permits were withdrawn soon after he was fined €1,600 for illegally hiring a Chinese cook, despite him having been here for the past eight years running an honest business.

The withdrawal of the permits amounted to excessive punishment, he insisted, pointing out that, so far, he had always been granted permission by the Director of Citizenship and Expatriates to live in Malta.

The story, according to him, begun in December last year when Mr Hou’s restaurant and two takeaways he owns in Birkirkara and Attard were raided by immigration officials. Some months after the initial raid they found a Chinese chef working illegally in Attard this year.

The chef was deported and Mr Hou admitted to charges of illegal employment and was fined €1,600. However, his work and residence permits were eventually revoked and he was given till the end of this month to leave the country.

Mr Hou sent a detailed letter to the ETC listing the sequence of events and asking it to reconsider its decision. However, neither he nor his representative was heard during the so-called hearing when his case was supposedly addressed, he said.

The decisions taken were completely disproportionate to the contraventions to which he had admitted, he said.

Mr Hou noted he had never broken the law throughout the years he had been on the island and argued that when compared to other similar cases the decisions taken by the ETC seemed so harsh.

If the ETC and the department did not respond and withdraw their draconian decisions within 10 days, Mr Hou said he would be forced to take further legal action.

Lawyer David Gatt signed the protest.