Just SayingForeign domestic helpers could bring Hong Kong to its knees if they chose to

Yonden Lhatoo reminds those who consider foreign domestic helpers to be a nuisance and an eyesore when they gather in public places on their days off that this city would be in serious trouble without them

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Eunice Yung said foreign domestic helpers congregating in public places affected the daily lives of the public, the operation of shops and the environmental hygiene in public places. Photo: David Wong

Published: 2:45pm, 26 May 2018Updated: 10:23pm, 26 May 2018

Whenever I manage to overcome weekend lethargy and jog along the Hung Hom promenade on a Sunday, I run past dozens of Indonesian domestic helpers at prayer near the ferry pier.

They sit cross-legged on the ground, occupying an empty, sheltered space adjacent to the main thoroughfare, and practise their faith on their one day off a week without getting in anyone’s way.

They have nowhere else to go. In fact, we have nearly 380,000 foreign domestic helpers, mostly women from the Philippines and Indonesia, in the same predicament every Sunday or public holiday.

They make do with any vacant space where they can socialise with members of their community, taking a well-earned break from the cramped homes they are forced to share with their employers under the live-in rule for foreign domestic helpers.

Imagine a domestic helper “umbrella movement” with hundreds of thousands of downtrodden women camping out for a week at Tamar Park and refusing to work. Photo: Nora Tam

So it should have been a great leap forward for their human rights when a lawmaker, for the first time as far as I can remember, raised a formal question in the Legislative Council this week about providing them with better options, including the possibility of the government setting up centres in different districts for their convenient use.