Trapped in the Workplace: Hong Kong’s Migrant Workers Endure COVID
Several NGOs in Hong Kong call for the government to implement measures to check and provide acceptable living standards of foreign domestic workers (FDWs) during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect the most accurate information as of 02/10/2022.
TCK Learning Centre, Hong Kong, 2021. Photo: Gaia Guatri
Blexy Taukimo, a 45-year-old Indonesian domestic worker, opened the bathroom door in her employers' apartment where she lives. Tears streamed down her face in a moment of raw tension when she stepped into the room and pointed at an old, dirty bathtub full of holes and insects.
"This has been my bed for the last 19 months, and I struggled every night to sleep because I felt constant pain across all my body," she said, after showing her back full of scars and insects' stings.
The living conditions of Taukimo are not an isolated case. The coronavirus pandemic has further exacerbated extreme inequality and discrimination affecting Hong Kong's foreign domestic workers (FDWs). The workers are mainly women from the Philippines, Indonesia, and other South Asian countries.
FDWs emigrate from their home countries to Hong Kong primarily for economic reasons and to support their families back home. Their employers are commonly wealthy locals or Chinese mainlanders, but an increasing number of expatriates from the West have started to employ them in the last decade. The domestic work that the migrants do helps households manage the heavy workloads and need for dual-income in Hong Kong. The duties of FDWs can vary based on employers' needs, from cleaning the house to cooking or taking care of the children.
Global and local power dynamics
Despite being the economic backbone of Hong Kong and about ten percent of the labour force, FDWs still struggle to have their fundamental rights recognized and protected. They face high levels of dehumanization and discrimination daily as migrants, minorities, and women. The living conditions of FDWs show the power dynamics underlying the globalized import chain labour force in Hong Kong, which is often overlooked, feminized, and exploited.
Unfair treatment of FDWs stems from power imbalances between the poorer migrants and their wealthier employers, imbalances that are enforced by Hong Kong’s immigration laws. Many FDWs accept abusive conditions out of fear of losing their job and income. Unemployment also risks deportation unless the worker is able to find a new employer within two weeks. FDWs fear complaining about working and living conditions because they could be easily sent home and replaced, allowing employers to push the boundaries of exploitation. Therefore, local and global discrepancies intertwine and create systematic and structural dynamics that worsen FDWs’ conditions.
Central, Hong Kong, 2021. Photo: Tom Grundy
Unclear standards and protections
Research for this article was conducted during the months of September to December and included interviews of FDWs in Victoria Park, Kowloon, Causeway Bay, and Central, Hong Kong. In these areas, most FDWs spend time together on Sundays, their one day off, gathering in groups on the streets and setting out tents where they commonly share food, sing, dance, and even pray together.
FDWs are entitled to this one rest day a week and must reside by their employer’s residence. The employer must provide free food and accommodation with “reasonable privacy” to the worker, according to Hong Kong law. However, many local NGOs criticize the government’s guidelines for not setting precise standards for FDW living conditions, potentially leading to abusive and unfair situations.
Health consequences
Most FDWs in Hong Kong must work an unspecified workload (as much as 15 to 19 hours a day) while living in the same accommodation as their employers, making it harder for them to maintain a mental separation between the work environment and the private one.
Mong Kok, Hong Kong, 2021. Photo: Gaia Guatri
As a Mission for Migrant Workers (MMW) investigation reported, three out of five FDWs do not have their own room and private space. Thus, they are forced to share space with other members of their employers’ families or sleep in areas with different purposes such as kitchens, living rooms, or even bathrooms. As the MMW study reveals, the poor living conditions of the workers has been linked to a decrease in mental health and a higher level of depression.
Central, Hong Kong, 2022. Photo: Gaia Guatri
Moreover, this so-called live-in policy enforces the risk of FDWs being abused by their employers due to unequal power relations. A Journal of Migration and Health study showed that physical and verbal abuse exponentially increased especially during the first part of the lockdown, from 23 January 2020 until March 2021, primarily based on discriminatory grounds.
“Treated like an animal”
Roro Setiawan, a 35-year-old Indonesian domestic worker in Hong Kong for twelve years, said that her last employer installed several mini cameras in the apartment during the pandemic, without notifying her, to check how many times she left the house.
“I was treated like an animal because I felt constantly spied and mistrusted or guilty if I would go out…so I forced myself to stay home and work even in my free time”, she said.
Antonio Villa, an interior designer who lived in Hong Kong for ten years, had employed three FDWs during the lockdown. He said that he just allowed them to buy food but not to go out on Sundays because he thought they could potentially bring the virus home by gathering with other FDWs on the streets.
Julie Ching, a student at the University of Hong Kong whose family has employed a domestic worker for five years, said that she experienced increasing tension between the FDW and her parents during the pandemic. On a couple of occasions, she witnessed her mother shouting at the crying worker, threatening to withhold her food if she refused to do housekeeping on Sunday.
Centres and advocacy groups
In recent decades, several local NGOs have begun advocating for FDWs’ rights and taking action to amplify their voices.
Hong Kong, 2021. Photo: PathFinders #WorkingMomHK Campaign website
For example, PathFinders is an NGO which supports migrant domestic workers who are unlawfully terminated from employment due to becoming pregnant. If expecting a child, in addition to losing a paycheque upon termination, FDWs no longer qualify for publicly provided medical services vital for pre-natal and newborn care. According to Radha Shah, a PathFinders research consultant, under Covid-19, such vulnerability increased further, due to social distancing regulations and travel restrictions which lengthened the processes of reinstatement or return to country of origin.
During the pandemic, PathFinders launched the #WorkingMomsHk campaign, an initiative to collectively celebrate all working mothers in Hong Kong. Previously they also sent several intervention letters to press the government to give more protection for the FDWs who worked under abusive or discriminatory conditions. However, the government did not provide appropriate answers for most of these letters.
Additionally, the Equal Opportunities Commission Officer, Devi Novianti, suggested that the Labour Department take more effective actions to prevent the mistreatment of FDWs by their employers, such as establishing mandatory educational programs organized by local NGOs for employers.
In response, Sandra Tsang, the Assistant Labour Officer of the Labour Department, said “the Labour Department still does not have a way to exert direct pressure and supervision on employers to follow the rules”.
Kowloon Promenade, 2021. Photo: Gaia Guatri
Nonetheless, she said that they have been taking actions to enhance FDWs’ and employers’ understanding of their rights and obligations through funding local NGOs and carrying out a series of publicity and educational activities. This includes the introduction of a newsletter, support channels and the distribution of informative leaflets about worker rights in public places where FDWs normally gather on Sunday.
Interviews with 20 FDWs, however, revealed almost none had received informative leaflets or knew about government assistance services. Furthermore, fifteen of the interviewees said they stayed in the house and worked on their day off during the pandemic because they did not have a safe place to gather with other FDWs.
Teaching and learning programs
During the pandemic, some NGOs recognized the lack of learning and community spaces for FDWs and decided to continue delivering their services. In learning centres like the TCK Learning Centre for Migrant Workers, FDWs could still attend Mandarin, English, sewing, and coding classes while respecting safety guidelines.
“Since the government did not dispose of adequate public spaces for FDWs and many learning centres were closed, we decided to keep active our teaching programs both in-person and online during the pandemic to allow FDWs to continue learning in a friendly community,” said Christopher Drake, the co-founder, treasurer, and tutor of TCK Learning Centre.
TCK Learning Centre, Hong Kong, 2021. Photo: Gaia Guatri
Yunia Prastiwi, a 27-year-old Indonesian domestic worker who has studied English and coding in TCK for three years, said joining TCK helped keep her mind stable during the pandemic.
“Learning within a community of Indonesian domestic workers,” she added, “helps me to become more confident about my skills and gives me the energy to pursue my passion: becoming a coding teacher back in my hometown”.
