Advocates, lawmakers push for better system to handle complaints by Hong Kong’s foreign domestic workers

Domestic helper advocacy groups and lawmakers urged the government to establish a platform to process enquiries and complaints from helpers and employers, as they criticised the current system for failing to encourage abused helpers to make complaints and for providing insufficient support to complainants.

The government said it would consider the suggestions and reflect them in a consultation paper, to be issued later this year, on better regulations governing the overseas domestic helper workforce.

During a Legislative Council panel meeting today, various groups focusing on equality and domestic helper rights voiced their concerns on the difficulties these foreign workers face, and the lack of support provided to them if they are abused.

Leo Tang Kin-wah, organising secretary of the Hong Kong Federation of Asian Domestic Workers Union, said he received a call recently from a social worker with a government-funded organisation, asking him how to deal with a case in which a Nepalese maid was raped by her employer.

“Although the government claims that it offers various services and support to overseas domestic helpers, this shows that it is not the case,” Tang said. “In order to let the government listen to views from both employers and helpers, we believe the government must set up a three-party platform, including employers, helpers and government representatives, to deal with all these overseas domestic helper-related policies.”

Other groups also noted that many abused helpers did not complain because they did not know whom they should contact, the police often brushed their cases aside as simple labour disputes due to miscommunication or they feared that they would be fired.