- Over 50,000 maids in Hong Kong were forced into labor says a recent report
- The study was conducted by the Justice Center which revealed that domestic workers are working for more than 70 hours without day off
- In Hong Kong, there are more than 300,000 domestic workers mostly from the Philippines and Indonesia
A new study released revealed that there are over thousands of domestic helpers in Hong Kong who are engaged in forced labor.
According to the report by Justice Center, there are some 50,000 migrant workers who are into forced labor. This accounts for 17% of the country’s migrant domestic population of 300,000, which mostly came from Indonesia and the Philippines.
Photo Credit: South China Morning Post
The categories set in this new report that define forced labor are the unwilling recruitment and practice of work and the inability of a worker to break away from his employment.
“Migrant domestic workers are uniquely vulnerable to forced labor because the nature of their occupation can blur work-life boundaries and isolate them behind closed doors,” South China Morning Post quoted the report as saying in its story published on March 15.
Data show that the average working hours of domestic workers interviewed were more than 70 hours and more than a third were not given a 24-hour day off from work, which is against the law.
Hong Kong is a melting pot of over 366,000 domestic workers in the South Asia region.
Justice Center Executive Director Piya Muqit urged the leadership of the country to address this issue as she said, “Hong Kong must come clean and acknowledge these problems. It can no longer afford to sweep them under the carpet.”
“Current regulations can actually increase the vulnerability of workers to exploitation and victims face very real barriers in seeking assistance and justice,” she added.
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