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As I see it | I write about Hong Kong’s dead domestic workers, and wait for the change that hasn’t come
- Dozens of foreign domestic workers fall ill and die every year in cities such as Hong Kong
- Better support systems are needed for these vulnerable migrants – who contribute millions to the cities they work in – and their families
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Why you can trust SCMP
Joan Guting, Jenevieve Asuncion, and Merle Bonagua. These are the names of some of the women I have written about over the years. I never met them nor had the chance to speak to them over the phone. I came to know about them after they had died.
There are dozens of women like them who come from the Philippines and other countries to work as domestic workers in Hong Kong, but who end up returning home ill or in a coffin.
They put their sons, daughters, grandchildren, and siblings through school. They provide for their families while caring for others’ families, often forgetting about themselves.
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Asuncion was building a house in the Philippines that she never got to live in. She was only 28 when she fell to her death in 2017 from an apartment building in Shenzhen after being brought there by her Hong Kong employers.
Three years on, her family is still struggling with a lack of answers about what happened before she plunged to her death, while seeking compensation through the courts in Hong Kong.
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