Modern Day Slavery In Hong Kong Foreign domestic workers and housemaids employed by Hongkongers typically families, about 330,000 foreigners work as domestic helpers in Hong Kong and an overwhelming majority of them are women. Amnesty International said thousands from the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand are being tricked into working in Hong Kong by brokers and agencies with callous disregard for their clients welfare. Many are forced to pay extortionate recruitment fees to agencies (many of them false) and are verbally, mentally and physically abused by their employers. They usually live in their employers residence and perform various household duties such as cooking, serving, cleaning, dish-washing, childcare and more. Domestic helpers in Hong Kong are vulnerable and often defenseless, they work for more than 12 hours per day, no day off some weeks and no holidays at all, actually a very high percentage of migrant domestic workers in the city had been verbally, mentally and physically abused. “From the moment the women are tricked into signing up for work in Hong Kong, they are trapped in a cycle of exploitation with cases that amounts to modern-day slavery” The vulnerability of migrant workers is compounded by discriminating labour laws and reluctant law enforcement. The Two-week rule states that migrant domestic workers must find new employment within two weeks of their contract ending or being terminated, or they have to leave Hong Kong. This pressures workers to remain with abusive employers; if they leave their job, they are likely to have to leave the country, which for many would make it impossible to repay the recruitment fees and support their families in their countries. Brave women, wives, daughters, sisters working in a modern-slavery with such conditions of human mistreatment. This has to stop now, international authorities must do something about it, Hong Kong government must do something about it, people need to realize that people are people, not commodities, people need to respect their rights. God bless these brave women!!
Posted on: Fri, 14 Mar 2014 00:29:28 +0000
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