Advertisement
Advertisement
Erwiana Sulistyaningsih
Get more with myNEWS
A personalised news feed of stories that matter to you
Learn more
Members of the Asian Migrants' Coordinating Body make their views known during the screening of a film on Erwiana’s plight. Photo: Felix Wong

Documentary takes plight of abused domestic worker Erwiana Sulistyaningsih from Hong Kong to the world

Filmmaker says the case of the Indonesian woman was not the only case of its kind with scholars labelling their plight ‘modern-day slavery’

The first documentary on the shocking story of abused former Indonesian domestic helper ­Erwiana Sulistyaningsih could be screened around the world to highlight human slavery, the filmmaker said at its premiere at City University on Sunday.

“This film is not just about ­Erwiana and Erwiana’s case is not the only case,” said Gabriel Ordaz, who came to Hong Kong from the US in 2010 and started making the documentary Erwiana: Justice For All in December 2013.

‘I still have the scars’: Indonesian maid Erwiana attends Hong Kong documentary screening, describes new life as university student

“As we sit here today, there’s probably somebody somewhere in a home suffering the same thing that Erwiana suffered. This is why I’d like to bring this message out.”

The 90-minute documentary, which includes graphic images of Erwiana’s horrific injuries, tells how the young woman came to Hong Kong in 2013 as a domestic helper, hoping to earn money to fund her further education.

It goes on to narrate how she ended up being assaulted and tortured by her former employer, Law Wan-tung, for eight months, and how she turned to her ­employment agency for help, only to be sent back to her abuser.

Abused Indonesian domestic helper Erwiana (centre) watches the film about her plight. Photo: Felix Wong

The documentary covers her story coming to light and how she and others fought a lengthy legal battle that eventually saw Law sentenced to six years in jail.

“After viewing this film, I cried several times,” Erwiana said at yesterday’s screening.

She recalled that when she was a child, her mother worked as a domestic helper in Brunei.

“If I could tell her at that time, I wanted to tell her that I did not want money, that I wanted my mum to stay with us every day,” she said.

“Two years after my case, I feel that the condition of live-in migrant domestic helpers in Hong Kong has not changed much.”

Erwiana’s former boss jailed for six years as judge calls her behaviour ‘contemptible’

The film also features several other domestic helpers’ stories of being abused, including one who had to work from 6am to midnight every day and was still repeatedly slapped and even whipped by her employer.

Several scholars interviewed in the film described it as “modern-day slavery” and concluded that officials in Hong Kong and in the domestic helpers’ home countries were unwilling to change the situation because there was too much money involved in the business.

Sringatin, spokeswoman of the Asian Migrants’ Coordinating Body, which organised the screening, said the group wanted to show the public that even after Erwiana’s high-profile case, the government had not learned any lesson.

It highlighted problematic policies such as requiring domestic helpers to live with their employers, excluding them from the minimum wage cover and forcing them to return to their home countries after their contracts were terminated prematurely, ­instead of allowing them to ­remain in Hong Kong and seek new employment .

“We can’t keep silent,” Sringatin said. “The government needs to have the political will to change.”

Ordaz said the film would be shown again at the University of Hong Kong, and he would take it to film festivals in Canada, the United States and Europe before eventually making it available on YouTube or Netflix.

Post