Make Hong Kong a safe place for domestic helpers, lawmaker urges, ahead of talks with Philippine and Indonesian officials
Group to press government officials next month for fairer treatment of city's 330,000 workers
Foreign domestic helpers' rights will be on the agenda when a delegation concerned with their working conditions in Hong Kong invites local, Indonesian and Philippine officials to a meeting in the city next month, a pan-democrat lawmaker announced yesterday.
The aim is to discuss the establishment of an inter-governmental working group on migrant domestic worker issues, Democratic Party leader Emily Lau Wai-hing said. She is calling for a fairer and more transparent system that serves both workers and employers.
"There are now around 330,000 domestic workers in Hong Kong, with most of them coming from the Philippines and Indonesia," said Lau, who was in Jakarta with a Hong Kong domestic workers' delegation from August 10 to 12 to discuss domestic helper issues with Indonesian officials.
"We owe a great debt to [these domestic helpers], so when they come here we want to ensure that [Hong Kong] is a safe place for them," she added.
Allan Bell, founder of the non-profit Public Interest Law and Advocacy Society and a member of the delegation, said policy reform is the solution as there are loopholes in the current system.
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"It is criminal to detain [a worker's] passport and illegal to take more than 10 per cent of the worker's monthly salary," Bell said. "Why aren't we regulating the agents? Are they above the law?"