Loan shark alarm raised in Hong Kong over rash of debt-related Filipino domestic helper suicides
Manila’s top diplomat in city steps in as money worries see death toll in two months surpass whole of 2015
A series of Filipino domestic helpers committing suicide has sparked high-level concerns that loan sharks are preying on maids who arrive in Hong Kong already in debt thanks to exorbitant employment agency fees.
The Phillipines Consul General has spoken out because four domestic helpers have already taken their own lives this year – the same number as for the whole of 2015 – with three of the cases confirmed as debt-related.
Bernadita Catalla pledged to provide more financial skills classes for helpers who can be easily duped by loan companies, sending them into a spiral of debt from the day they arrive. In 2014, three Filipinos committed suicide in Hong Kong.
READ MORE: Hong Kong’s domestic helpers trapped by loan sharks and employment agencies in debt bondage hell
“It’s so easy to get a loan here but we must be careful and think of ourselves because we might end up mired in debt,” the diplomat said this month, urging members of the Filipino community against relying on friends as guarantors.
“This is a sad symptom of a problem we’ve been discussing for years,” said Legislative Council heavyweight Emily Lau, who has been pushing the Hong Kong government and the governments of maids’ home countries to tighten employment agency regulations.
She described how maids fell into debt not because of luxuriant spending habits but because they had dependents back home to support and struggled to keep up with payments.
“The main reason these women are in debt is because [governments] allow agents to collect so much money from them,” Lau added.