“We are very worried our migrant workers will be so afraid to file a case because it takes too long and yet it doesn’t mean that we’ll get any compensation,” Eni Lestari, the chairwoman of the International Migrants Alliance, said.

“And then more employers will take this kind of advantage to abuse more domestic workers because they know fighting for justice is very difficult in Hong Kong.”

The court also ordered Tai Chi-wai and Catherine Au Yuk-shan, who were Kartika’s employers, to pay between 1 and 2 per cent interest a year until they had discharged their debt to her.

The amount exceeded the HK$809,430 granted to Erwiana Sulistyaningsih, who became the face of the civil rights movement for foreign domestic helpers in 2013 and 2014 after the abuse she suffered from employer Law Wan-tung made headlines around the world.

District Court judge Catherine Cheng Kam-lin explained there was a need to adjust the damages awarded to Kartika, now back home in Indonesia, in line with inflation.

The domestic helper’s ordeal started in 2010, when Kartika came to Hong Kong to work at the couple’s two homes in Tai Po.

She was subjected to a vicious two-year campaign of abuse that involved assaults with bicycle chains, a hot iron, a paper cutter and a clothes hanger.

Tai and Au, then in their early 40s, were jailed for three years and three months and 5½ years respectively in 2013 after they were convicted of wounding with intent and assault causing actual bodily harm.

Ex-domestic helper tortured by Hong Kong couple seeks HK$1.28 million in damages

Civil judgments were entered against Tai in 2017 and Au in 2019 and they were ordered to pay compensation to Kartika, but the couple did not appear in court or engage a lawyer for the proceedings.

A hearing to assess damages was scheduled for 2020, but was adjourned until October last year because of Covid-19 travel restrictions.

Kartika’s lawyers last October asked for HK$1.28 million in compensation after part of the amount was settled by her insurer.

Cheng granted most of the claims based on damages, loss of income and ability to work, as well as future medical expenses.

But she refused to grant the full amount of HK$22,000 Kartika claimed for as payment for soothing gel for her scars.

The judge awarded her HK$1,000 because she had failed to produce receipts for the gel.

Percy Yue Pui-sze, who appeared for Kartika, earlier said her client could no longer work in high temperatures, such as in a kitchen, and now had a lower chance of securing employment as a saleswoman or teacher.

Kartika said previously that the punishment imposed on her employers was “disproportionate to the inhumane torture and abuse” they inflicted on her.

She told the court through her barrister that she was worried her husband would leave her because of a prominent scar on her left ear.

Kartika said she still felt a sense of humiliation after she was forced to sleep in the toilet or on chairs by Au and feared that she would turn her anger on her children when she lost her temper.

She added she had also developed difficulties in her relations with other people.

Sringatin, head of the Indonesian Migrant Workers’ Union, another group organised to look after foreign domestic workers, said the award could not make up for the torture inflicted on Kartika.

“Every night she has a bad dream, she has difficulty sleeping. So we cannot compare the money and what happened to Kartika … we want to make sure that this is not happening again in Hong Kong,” she said.