Shelters for distressed domestic helpers in Hong Kong face closure over lack of funds
City’s vulnerable migrant women seek refuge at Bethune House, which offers lodging and other services at two centres it runs, but the charity only has funds until June
For four years and 10 months, Surati, an Indonesian domestic helper in Hong Kong, had no mobile phone, could not visit her family back home, and was required to remain in her employer’s house unless she had to run errands.
“My son has forgotten me, because I could not call or see him,” she said.
The pain of fading from her child’s memory was even more unbearable than the abuse she had to endure in the city. “When ‘mam was upset, she would slap me,” Surati, 28, said of her former employer.
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“I accepted all of this because I was afraid. She told me that if I returned to Indonesia, I could not come back and work here again.”
Surati – who did not want to disclose her surname – arrived in Hong Kong in 2012 leaving her 1½-year-old son behind in hopes of earning enough abroad to support her family back home.
She found work in the city, but lived with an employer whose temper would one day lead to an iron being thrown at the domestic helper. Surati claimed she was also beaten up in the incident.
She was left with a swollen and bruised eye and other injuries all over her body.