Help for the helpers: New Hong Kong employment agency aims to stamp out 'modern-day slavery'
Failed by the system, many domestic helpers are forced into debt bondage - or modern-day slavery - by unscrupulous recruiters. Now, an ethical employment agency is seeking to protect them from exploitation, writes Angharad Hampshire
''When you think of Hong Kong, you don't imagine this sort of problem," says Scott Stiles, co-founder and general manager of the Fair Employment Agency, a new not-for-profit recruitment organisation for foreign domestic workers.
The problem is debt bondage, a state in which employees - in this case foreign domestic workers or, as they are known colloquially in Hong Kong, helpers - are bound to their job or employer by debt. The United Nations refers to it as a form of "modern-day slavery".
Many helpers in Hong Kong are forced into debt by illegal placement fees. Agencies are allowed to levy a certain charge in a helper's home country. In the Philippines, these fees are for training and a medical examination. In Indonesia, a placement fee can also be charged. But, once a helper sets foot in Hong Kong, the maximum amount an agency can legally charge is 10 per cent of their first pay packet. Based on the current minimum allowable wage, that would amount to HK$401.
However, many unscrupulous agencies in Hong Kong flout this law, charging helpers placement fees of up to HK$21,000. As most cannot foot this sort of bill, they are "loaned" the money and made to pay it back at a rate of 70 per cent to 80 per cent of their monthly salary for seven or eight months. This leaves many helpers bound to their jobs by poverty and debt, making them vulnerable to abuse, overwork and other forms of mistreatment.
"Employers are often unaware of the issue, or choose to ignore the situation," says Stiles. "The root of the problem is the employment agencies overcharging. If you look at the news reports of horrible situations of abuse, for example, the recent case of Erwiana Sulistyaningsih, who was illegally charged HK$18,000, [cases of abuse] generally [involve] people who have been loaded with debt and put into a position of debt bondage.
"In order to solve these problems, you have to take the debt away to remove the pressure, so that someone who is being abused can come forward and say, 'I need out'. If we can solve the debt issue, the other problems of human trafficking and more egregious forms of abuse in Hong Kong will solve themselves."
Holly Allan is manager of Helpers for Domestic Helpers, a charity that offers free advice, counselling and guidance to maids. According to Allan, more than 60 per cent of the cases dealt with by the charity last year involved exploitation by employment agencies in Hong Kong.