HONG KONG (UCAN): Ahead of International Women’s Day, which fell on March 8, the migrant workers’ rights collation, Asian Migrants’ Coordinating Body in Hong Kong released a statement on March 2, calling on the city’s authorities to end abuses and discrimination against female migrant domestic workers.
Women migrant workers from different countries were called on to “unite to continue to change the system that causes violence to migrant domestic workers.
During its March 2 press conference, the Asian Migrants’ Coordinating Body noted that women in Hong Kong face significant challenges as they are “boxed into roles deemed acceptable by society” and women migrants endure even worse treatment.
“Women migrants are looked at as products, packaged and ready to be sold in the market to the lowest bidder,” the group said, adding that they are treated as “slaves” and get “slave wages” while enduring more working hours, and problems with accommodation.
Women migrants are looked at as products, packaged and ready to be sold in the market to the lowest bidder
Asian Migrants’ Coordinating Body
“They are even punished for ‘job-hopping’ as if the other workers are not doing this, and as if they are willing to risk months of unemployment on a whim,” the coalition said.
The group leaders said that unfair policies for migrant domestic workers result in an abusive system and asked what kind of system, “breeds [condescending] lawmakers who do no basic research to see that there are scores of abused domestic workers?
They called on the local government and sending governments to review and change policies that worsen their situation, bringing “slavery” to the sector.
The group also called for an end to the “two-week rule”—which requires a migrant worker to leave Hong Kong within two weeks after the termination of a job contract. It also seeks an end to mandatory live-in arrangements, the exclusion from statutory minimum wage and regulation of working hours.
The coalition also demanded an apology from lawmakers, Elizabeth Quat and Frankie Ngan, who allegedly made racist, malicious and baseless remarks accusing migrant workers of job-hopping.
“We urge lawmakers to create laws that will improve the protection of both the employers and migrant domestic workers … and ensure equal, fair and just treatment by Hong Kong society to hundreds of thousands of migrant domestic workers,” the group said.
The coalition consists of 12 labour groups representing workers from countries and territories including Hong Kong, the Philippines, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Nepal.
According to official data, Hong Kong has about 340,000 domestic migrant workers, mostly Filipino and Indonesian women, Hong Kong Free Press reported on March 2. Under Hong Kong law, they must live in the homes of their employers and cannot benefit from the city’s welfare policies, such as free consumption vouchers.
