MANILA (Mindanao Examiner / Feb. 26, 2014) – Members of the Asian Migrants Coordinating Body of the International Migrants Alliance picketed in front of Hong Kong’s Immigration Department to denounce its policies on foreign domestic workers.
The AMCB-IMA accused Hong Kong of desperately trying to cover up serious flaws on its foreign policies, citing the case of Indonesian worker Erwiana Sulistyaningsih, who was forced to break contact with her family for six months and barred from leaving her employers’ flat in Hong Kong.
The 23-year old maid was also tortured by her employers.
“Coming on the heels of Erwiana’s case, the Hong Kong government is desperately trying to cover up the serious flaws on its policies on foreign domestic workers by lying and creating the phantom problem of job-hopping among FDWs,” the AMCB-IMA said in a statement sent to the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner.
Its members rallied at the Immigration Department to denounce the Security Bureau’s claims of job-hopping among FDWs to collect severance payment and money for airfare.
“Job-hopping among FDWs for reason the government says and for the bases they claim is highly-improbable if not bordering on a total lie. First of all, an FDW cannot collect severance payment if they worked for less than 12 months. Secondly, the so-called financial gains after termination including the one-month salary in lieu of notice as well as the airfare are not even enough to cover even half of what the agencies charge us. There is no rational or practical reason for an FDW to job-hop,” Dolores Balladares, spokesperson of the AMCB-IMA, said in a statement sent to the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner.
The group also questioned the legitimacy of using the data the Secretary for Security Lai Tung-Kwok relayed to the public to show the so-called job-hopping practice of FDWs.
“We should note that the 1,372 applications are only suspected job-hoppers based on unreasonable and arbitrary criteria. Of this, 170 were rejected based on unproven allegation of job-hopping to collect payment. The 158 who voluntarily withdrew their application cannot also be conclusively classified as job-hoppers. The Security Bureau is not even making a mountain out of a molehill but actually creating an issue where none exists at all,” Balladares said.
The release of these dubious data, Balladares said, is highly suspicious given that the topic is being drummed up by the government and political parties known for their anti-migrant stands in the middle of national and international calls to review the Hong Kong policies that expose FDWs to different forms and degrees of abuses like what happened to Erwiana.
“They want to project that we are abusing the system whereas the truth is, this system has failed Erwiana and all FDWs in protecting our rights and wellbeing. The Two-Week Rule, mandatory live-in employment arrangement and other exclusionary policies of Hong Kong have made what happened to Erwiana possible. The truth is that HK policies are seriously flawed and have in need of immediate and comprehensive changes,” Balladares said.
The AMCB-IMA implored the Hong Kong government to stop diverting the issue and creating a baseless public scare and instead look into the demands for review of policies on FDWs.
“They should just stop the lies and the scare-mongering. The malicious claims of job-hopping and making it appear that FDWs are engaged in a criminal act – though there’s no law against job-hopping in Hong Kong – are unjust and make Erwiana and all FDWs victims twice over of a system that abuses and enslaves migrant workers,” Balladares said.
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