Beaten, hit with an iron, doused in bleach: the Hong Kong domestic helpers facing systemic abuse and how city could protect them
In a new book, Hong Kong academic Hans Ladegaard tells 300 helpers’ stories of abuse and examines its patterns and causes. He tells of the steps that can be taken to safeguard them and deal with ‘evil’ employers
The angry outburst directed at Maryane, punctuated by blows from her female employer, was triggered by an innocuous mistake: the 28-year-old Indonesian helper had forgotten to put the butter on the breakfast table.
“What is missing? [slap],” her employer shouts. “I have reminded you many times. You have a poor memory … You better die [slap]. Why aren’t you dead? You better jump off the building and kill yourself. You make me so angry every day; you better die.”
Maryane was beaten over a period of four months by her Hong Kong employer, who made her work 16 hours a day and sleep in the toilet. On occasions she was dragged across the floor by her hair. She used her mobile phone to record her beatings and to take pictures of her swollen face and bruises.
Eventually, with no money or belongings, she fled to a shelter for abused helpers run by the Mission for Migrant Workers. There, one day later, she told an interviewer: “She always beat me every day. She beat me like an animal.” However, after detailing the abuse and showing the evidence of her injuries, she insisted timidly: “I’m not angry with my employer; this is my mistake.”
Maryane’s story is one of more than 300 testimonies collected at the Bethune House shelter in Jordan by Hans Ladegaard, head of English at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, for an upcoming book that meticulously examines the patterns and causes of helper abuse in Hong Kong.
