An employment agency wants Hong Kong to start hiring domestic helpers from Vietnam, but the Immigration Department said they were banned for security reasons.
The Association of Vietnamese Employment Agencies said the government should reverse the ban on importing domestic workers from Vietnam. It also commissioned a survey of about 1,200 people by the Hong Kong Shue Yan University, which found that 40 per cent supported having Vietnamese maids working in the city. Only 20 per cent said they would oppose the idea.
The association was set up last year by its chairman Patrick Chan Yui-kei, who said countries such as the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand did not supply enough workers because of growing demand.
'Vietnamese maids all have to undergo longer training than Filipino maids. They are well poised to work as domestic helpers here,' he said.
Chan said many Vietnamese domestic helpers were drawn to the Middle East, where they were in great demand, as well as to Europe and North America, which offered better working conditions.
Vietnamese maids also commonly work in Macau, Taiwan and Korea. There were about 5,600 Vietnamese maids in Macau, about 500 fewer than Filipino maids there, the Macau government said.
However, a spokesman for the Immigration Department said the current policy was based on evaluation of the country involved, including its security concerns.