Problems face by foreign domestic helpers in HK alarms migrant group

MANILA (Mindanao Examiner / Apr. 4, 2014) – A Filipino migrant group in Hong Kong has expressed alarm over the alarming crisis on condition of foreign household workers and urged policy-makers to rethink rules and seek ways to assist them.

The Mission for Migrant Workers of St. John’s Cathedral said it noticed a spike and notable surge in the number of clients it served in 2013 and that it is an indication that the crisis condition of foreign domestic workers or FDWs in Hong Kong is at an alarming level.

It said an urgent and necessary review and reforms must be made to mitigate the vulnerability of FDWs to labor and migrant’s rights violations. It said last year, a total of 7,653 Asian migrants sought the help of the MFMW ranging from assistance with labor, immigration and criminal cases, to inquiries and counseling for employment and psycho-social issues.

An overwhelming majority of the MFMW clients were women domestic workers (98.8%) and most were from the Philippines at 77% while the rest were from Indonesia (19%) and other Asian countries (4%).

They included newly-registered clients, women sheltered at the Bethune House, those who sought advice in walk-in or mobile counseling centers set up with partner organizations, and phone inquiries. Out of the total number of FDWs assisted, statistical data were gathered from 2,169 clients to determine the concerns of FDWs.

The major findings were – 77% of the FDWs assisted had problems with illegal fees and overcharging of recruitment agencies; 52% of had “personal loans” forced upon them by recruiters; 87% complained of long working hours and 11% suffered from various forms of maltreatment.

Combined with the results of the survey by the MFMW last year among 3,006 FDWs, it showed the spread and severity of violations of FDW rights.

Migrants who complained of agency-related fees shot up dramatically and continued to accumulate throughout the whole year. In 2013, clients who were overcharged or illegally charged with fees who went to MFMW walk-in centers numbered an average of 50-60 on any given Sunday.

Closely related to the problem with recruitment agencies are complaints against money-lending agencies that are usually involved in the modus operandi of recruiters to charge high and illegal fees.

Often, those who were overcharged, were also forced into debt bondage, which meant that they worked just so they could pay off the “personal loans” they were pushed to take out.

To tie the hands of FDWs and prevent them from complaining, their documents such as passport of HKID were confiscated. From those surveyed, 13% suffered from this practice.

It said the high instance – 86.6% – of working double the normal hours of other workers was consistent with the survey on the live-in policy where 46%reported working even up to 19 hours a day.

It said the problem of working hours is very much related to the mandatory live-in policy imposed by the Immigration Department since 2003 that made FDW working unregulated and forced them to be on-call for 24 hours each day. They had no private rooms and were made to sleep in any available spaces like utility closets, laundry rooms, hallways and the likes. Some were also made to sleep together with the children or elderly members of the household.

The case of Indonesian domestic worker Kartika Puspitasari in 2013 – who was beaten and severely abused by her employers – showed the extent of maltreatment that FDWs experience. Succeeding reports of abuse, particularly that of Erwiana Sulistyaningsih this year, further reinforce this point.

In the survey on the Live-In Policy, it was found that 58% of FDWs suffer from verbal abuse and 18% said they experienced physical abuse and 6% suffered from sexual abuse and sexual harassment.

Of the survey from cases handled in 2013, 11% complained of maltreatment while 15 percent were provided with insufficient food, and 4% experienced assault and harassment.

The relevant branches of the Hong Kong government can take steps to address these problems of migrant workers. While the cases the MFMW handled involved disputes between FDWs and their employer or members of the household, and between FDWs and recruitment and financing agencies, current Hong Kong policies exist to reinforce the condition where these abuses occur.

Policies that the Hong Kong government can improve on include the setting up of a more effective mechanism against violation of the 10 percent of first month’s salary cap that agencies can charge to FDWs; swifter prosecution of erring recruiters; lifting of the mandatory live-in employment arrangement and leaving this to the mutual agreement of the FDWs and employer; inclusion of FDWs in the proposed statutory working hours, and a review of the Two-Week Rule that makes FDWs vulnerable to abuses.

The MFMW said it believes that the government must take actions to curb the deterioration of the labor and migrant’s rights condition of FDWs. It said the dignity and human rights of FDWs must be upheld. –http://www.mindanaoexaminer.com/news.php?news_id=2014040408024