Bangladeshi domestic helpers trained in Hong Kong ways ready to move to city, country’s consul general says
- Bangladeshi Consul General Israt Ara says five training centres set up in country offering Cantonese courses and housekeeping training
- About 300 domestic helpers have already completed training and are ready to move to city
Israt Ara, the Bangladeshi consul general, said four government-supervised training centres and a private one offered two-month training programmes, including a Cantonese language course and housekeeping, for those who wanted to work in the city.
“Three hundred Bangladeshi female domestic helpers have already completed their training in the country … So if the demand is here, if the employer would like to hire a Bangladeshi domestic helper, then these 300 girls are ready,” she added.
Ara said her consulate had accredited 30 to 35 Hong Kong employment agencies and planned to contact more.
She added she had asked the Labour Department for a list of the 3,000 Hong Kong employment agencies and to circulate the message that Bangladesh wanted to send more domestic staff to the city.
“We would like to know more about the demand for domestic helpers and the recruitment process and how we can improve if there are any kind of challenges or issues,” Ara said.
Bangladesh started sending domestic helpers to Hong Kong in 2013, but the response was lukewarm.
The latest figures from the Immigration Department showed Indonesians and Filipinos account for 97.5 per cent of the 338,000 foreign domestic workers in the city. Only 476 Bangladeshis were employed in the sector.
“We can understand that it totally depends on the choice, preference and demand of the employers who will recruit domestic helpers from Bangladesh or from other countries,” Ara said.
Ara said she had got “good news” at a meeting earlier this month with Secretary for Labour and Welfare Chris Sun Yuk-han as he had told her Hong Kong authorities would welcome and help more domestic staff to move to the city.
No hike in Indonesian domestic helper fees in Hong Kong, diplomat promises
The meeting was arranged amid confusion over whether Indonesia planned to increase recruitment fees for workers in Hong Kong.
But some agents and employers’ groups said many in the city did not have much confidence in Bangladeshi domestic helpers because of experiences with the earliest recruits.
Betty Yung Ma Shan-yee, the chairwoman of the Hong Kong Employers of Overseas Domestic Helpers Association, said some had moved to other jobs after they arrived in the city and left their employers high and dry.
“Because it got off on the wrong foot, employers were scared of trying to hire Bangladeshi helpers in the following years,” she explained.
Yung emphasised that although “one bad apple should not spoil the whole basket”, regaining the confidence of employers in Bangladeshi domestic helpers would take time.
Thomas Chan Tung-fung, the chairman of the Hong Kong Union of Employment Agencies, said the market had been dominated by Indonesian and Filipino workers for so long because of Hongkongers’ bias.
He said agencies were not prepared to take risks when the market did not show interest.
Hong Kong minister meets country officials over plan to bring in more helpers
Ara, who personally liaised with employment agencies and associations, said she could “understand where this preference is coming from, because there are other domestic helpers coming from different countries and [Hong Kong employers] are more familiar with those countries”.
She said the consulate had asked the Labour Department to refer teachers who could provide Cantonese lessons at Bangladeshi training centres, as learning the language could help boost employability.
Ara said she was hopeful about future employment prospects for Bangladeshi domestic helpers in the city.
“When I met the secretary for labour and welfare, he also gave me an indication that there will be a visit from the Hong Kong side to Bangladesh if needed,” she added.
Chan said Hong Kong was only alerted to the problem of the “unbalanced” supply of workers after the Indonesian fees problem jeopardised the recruitment of helpers from a traditional source.
He said the incident showed industry players needed to communicate better among themselves and invest in the Bangladeshi labour market if it wanted to change the status quo.
The Jakarta-based Indonesian Manpower Placement Agency Association (Aspataki) said earlier this month that the country’s government would implement its “zero placement fee” policy fully and warned employers they would have to pay a few thousand dollars more if they hired an Indonesian.
The news led Sun to hold meetings on August 8 with Ara and her Cambodian counterpart Puthisathbopeaneaky Pech to explore new sources of labour.
