Topic
Erwiana Sulistyaningsih is a former Indonesian domestic worker who in January 2014 accused her Hong Kong employer of subjecting her to six months of physical abuse. Photographs of Erwiana's injuries quickly spread through social media and led to public outrage.
Yonden Lhatoo asks what hope there is for this marginalised but vital sector when, instead of addressing their grievances, we argue they are welcome to leave if life here is unbearable
You will hear all kinds of excuses and defences about how Hong Kong has better legal protection for foreign maids than most other jurisdictions. Officials, agents and bosses will circle their wagons, insisting what happened was an isolated incident rather than something widespread.
The Singaporeans jailed this week for ordering their domestic worker to eat her own vomit were not a one-off. From Hong Kong’s Erwiana to an Indonesian beaten with bamboo, here are Asia’s most notorious cases of helper abuse.
Indonesian helper seeks explanation from authorities after former employer Law Wan-tung is released from prison more than two years early.
Law Wan-tung was jailed for six years in February 2015 over abuse of the Indonesian domestic worker that made global headlines and put working conditions of helpers in Hong Kong under spotlight.
Former civil servant, who threw scalding water over her Bangladeshi helper in 2014, kept a “punishment book” listing fines imposed on replacement maid for mistakes, including failing to marinade a cucumber and using the word “just”.
The Hong Kong judge who ordered Law Wan-tung to pay HK$170,000 says the beautician’s application ‘must be refused’ in ‘the interests of justice’.
Hong Kong people’s racial prejudice against Filipino and Indonesian workers must give way, especially in the face of evidence that race is essentially a fiction.
Protest over ‘rampant’ problem comes two weeks after Indonesian domestic helper died in Malaysia reportedly following torture by her employer
Rule was instituted in 2003 to prevent foreign domestic workers jostling with local workers for part-time jobs
Filipino helper had challenged rule, claiming director of immigration abused his power to introduce policy in 2003
Tutik Lestari Ningsih seeks HK$170,000 in damages from local beautician Law Wan-tung over abuse she suffered back in 2010 and 2011
District Court judge Winnie Tsui awards the Indonesian the full amount she sought, disregarding employer’s latest assertion that the former helper overstated her injuries
Filmmaker says abused former domestic helper Erwiana Sulistyaningsih was not the only case of its kind, with scholars labelling their plight ‘modern-day slavery’.