Coronavirus: nearly 70 domestic helpers lack any place for home quarantine after testing positive in Hong Kong following end of contract, NGOs say

Attempts to find accommodation at university dormitories or religious retreats runs into red tape, NGOs say

‘We just don’t want to see these women on the streets, especially with the cold weather warning,’ says one charity executive

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Hong Kong is struggling with a shortage of home quarantine space for domestic workers who test positive for Covid-19, charities say. Photo: Dickson Lee

Published: 8:44pm, 22 Feb 2022Updated: 9:06pm, 22 Feb 2022

The number of domestic helpers needing immediate help with home quarantine after testing positive for Covid-19 has ballooned from a handful to nearly 70 in less than a week, concern groups have revealed.

A coalition of 14 NGOs serving migrant workers’ interests told the media on Tuesday they were trying to secure alternative accommodation for the workers, including university dormitories or religious retreat housing, but they were being frustrated by social-distancing rules and red tape.

HELP For Domestic Workers first received urgent calls from five domestic workers last Wednesday who had nowhere to serve their home quarantine after testing positive for the coronavirus. The number of requests had since jumped to 68, it said.

Fourteen workers were at risk of being homeless on Tuesday night as shelters were filling up quickly, according to the group’s executive director, Manisha Wijesinghe.

At one shelter, 11 domestic workers were crammed into a single room, she said, emphasising the situation was “not ideal, especially if people were sick”.

Most of the cases involved workers who had finished or terminated contracts and tested positive before departing Hong Kong, Wijesinghe said.

PathFinders chief executive officer Catherine Gurtin said that while donors have stepped forward to help many charities, the situation was changing rapidly.

“We just don’t want to see these women on the streets, especially with the cold weather warning,” Gurtin said.