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Mary Ann

Mary Ann Benitez

The Government is considering a proposal to cap the number of foreign domestic helpers in Hong Kong to 100,000 - less than half the current number.

Unionist legislators have suggested the limit should be placed on the number of foreign maids allowed to work in the SAR at any one time.

This follows a government proposal to force foreign maids to live at their employers' homes as a way to promote jobs for part-time local maids.

A spokesman for the Education and Manpower Bureau said the proposal to put a limit on the number of foreign helpers was being considered in continuing consultations.

As of September, there were 232,290 foreign maids in Hong Kong, of whom 155,370 were Filipinos and 66,130 Indonesians.

Legislator Frederick Fung Kin-kee of the Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood said he agreed with a 100,000 cap.

'I do not think it is discriminatory. The aim is to protect our local workers,' he said.

But Frontier legislator Cyd Ho Sau-lan said cutting off the supply by 60 per cent would be 'too drastic'. 'What we can do is to stop more foreign domestic helpers from coming in. In times of economic downturn, the number of domestic helpers we currently have should be good enough,' she said.

Sajida Ally of the Asian Migrant Centre expressed concern that foreign helpers were being 'portrayed as having taken away jobs from locals'.

She said she believed Hong Kong women opposed the move and felt they were being pushed towards taking up jobs as domestic helpers which they did not want.

Corazon Canete of the Mission for Filipino Migrant Workers said the population of foreign domestic helpers could not have grown to the extent it had if there was no demand.

'How can you cap the needs of your own residents?' she asked.

The mission said the Government had 'a penchant for introducing anti-migrant and racist policies since 1998'. As well as a quota, Ms Canete said enforcing live-in arrangements would exacerbate labour abuses.

Nearly 37 per cent of the 393 foreign domestic helpers who complained to the mission in the first six months of last year had no private rooms, she said. In 1999, 28 per cent of the 722 women who sought help had no private rooms.

Former Philippine president Fidel Ramos, who was in Hong Kong last week, said his countrypeople had other options if they lost their jobs in Hong Kong.

There were other destinations which offered higher wages for trained workers and those who chose to go back to the Philippines could be helped through a reintegration programme, he said.

'The loss of jobs here, which is to be expected because of the slowdown of the economy of Hong Kong, and this policy to bring in more of the locals from the mainland should not be seen as a big blow. The Philippine economy is very diverse and very resilient,' he told the Sunday Morning Post.



Proposal to halve number of foreign maids considered