Plight of Hong Kong’s foreign maids

Fired cancer patient exposes routine exploitation faced by domestic helpers

HONG KONG: The case of a Filipina domestic worker in Hong Kong who was sacked after being diagnosed with cervical cancer – leaving her without healthcare – shines a light on the exploitation of tens of thousands of foreign women who toil as maids in the wealthy city.

A single mother of five, Baby Jane Allas was just 38 when she was diagnosed with stage three cervical cancer in January.

Then came a new gut punch – a letter from her employers terminating her service, and with it any hope of getting her medical expenses covered under Hong Kong law.

“Reason(s) for termination (if any): Diagnosed with cervical cancer,” read the letter.

Allas was floored. Her firing was likely illegal and she is launching a challenge, but once sacked she instantly lost her healthcare – and had two weeks to leave the city.

“I want to finish my contract... because I have five children, only me, I am (a) single mother,” Allas said, her voice breaking as tears ran down her face.

Women like Allas are the bedrock of Hong Kong’s households.

More than 340,000 domestic helpers work in the city – mostly poor women from the Philippines and Indonesia – often performing menial tasks for low wages while living in poor conditions.

City authorities say the system is fair and that abuses are rare.

But rights campaigners say domestic helpers are routinely exploited, with laws providing them little protection.

Local rights group Justice Centre Hong Kong estimates as many as 1 in 6 maids work in conditions that constitute forced labour.

Last year the US State Department placed Hong Kong on par with Thailand and Afghanistan in its annual human trafficking rankings partly because of the lack of protections offered to maids.

Experts say steep agency fees, a requirement for maids to live with their employers, a minimum monthly wage of just US$575 (RM2,352) and rules that require fired domestic workers to quickly depart the city leave maids acutely vulnerable to abusive or unscrupulous employers.

Allas spent just over a year working for a family of Pakistani origin who ordered her to perform tasks even on her one day off each week.

She was routinely given stale leftovers to eat and slept on a thin comforter in a cluttered store room, she added.

“My neighbour... gave me noodles. She is very nice to me. She said, ‘oh what happened to your body, you are so delicate now, only one year you lost your weight,” Allas recalled.

AFP reached out to her employer for comment but she did not respond to calls or messages.

In contrast Allas’ sister Mary Ann was more fortunate.

She landed a job with an American, Jessica Cutrera, who has since taken Allas in, helping her to fight her case and starting an online fundraising campaign to pay her medical bills which has so far raised some US$43,000 (RM175,937).