Goodbye debt: helping domestic helpers escape modern slavery in Hong Kong and around the world
Portals such as Hong Kong-based HelperChoice provide ethical benefits to employers, as well as to abused maids
It was past midnight when Filipino domestic helper Genelie Millan, feeling worn out and empty, dragged herself back to her room, took out her phone to search for a way to escape her abusive Hong Kong employer, and came across the website that changed her life.
HelperChoice is one of several online services that – cutting out the middleman recruiters who charge would-be maids exorbitant fees – help such workers to avoid getting trapped in debt bondage to exploitative employers.
Since leaving her 11-year-old son in the Philippines in 2010, Millan had been forced to sleep on a sofa and hit with a pair of chopsticks before finding the site that let her choose for herself a more sympathetic boss.
“They treat me like their family. They trust me a lot,” the 39-year-old says of her new employers.
Helpers just can’t leave because they have no paper, no documentation. This is modern slavery – people have no alternatives
From Asia to the Middle East, thousands of migrant domestic helpers are trapped in debt and cannot escape, even if they are abused, because they have to repay the recruiters that found them work, and often make deductions from their monthly wages.