EOC not doing enough in discrimination cases: Unison

A group advocating racial equality said on Monday that an incident in which a woman was denied service in a restaurant last week because of her wheelchair showed that Hongkongers needed more education on the issue, and accused the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) of not doing enough to help victims of such incidents. The wheelchair incident involving Paralympics double gold medallist Ho Yuen-kei has turned the spotlight on the SAR's treatment of the disabled. John Tse, the executive director of Hong Kong Unison, said anti-discrimination laws had been passed in 1995, but these problems kept cropping up. "Thirty years later we still have this kind of discrimination happening in Hong Kong and it's totally unacceptable," Tse told RTHK's Hong Kong Today programme. Mr Tse said the EOC had to do more to promote and educate Hong Kongers and keep them informed of any action that it took after such incidents. Although the catering sector drew fire after last week's incident, Tse said these problems weren't limited to restaurants. He cited a separate incident earlier this year in which two visually disabled people were forced to leave a flight in Hong Kong. "No action was ever taken. The two people complained to the EOC. What did they do? Well, nothing much, they just dismissed it," he said.