Sick domestic workers left homeless and jobless in Hong Kong after catching Covid-19, highlights a deeper problem
- Dozens of domestic workers who tested positive for Covid-19 have been left homeless and many say they’ve faced other forms of discrimination and abuse
- Advocates say the recent crisis highlights the need to revise the rule forcing domestic workers to live in the same house as their Hong Kong employer
When Josephine*, a 54-year-old domestic worker from the Philippines, began to have a sore throat, she feared it was Covid-19. It was at the time when Hong Kong was going through the most serious wave of the pandemic and hospitals were running out of beds.
She was right. After testing positive for the virus, she was given “cold, cough and fever” medicine by medical staff who told her to stay home.
But instead of sleeping in her bed, Josephine’s employers made her take a mattress to their building’s dirty stairs, rarely used by residents. She was not able to rest properly. “It was very cold because it was very open,” the single mother-of-two said.
There was no running water and, banned from using her bosses’ bathroom, she had to go out to use a public toilet. “I didn’t want to do that because I had the virus, but I had no option,” said Josephine, who could not have a shower for seven days.
She was shocked about being left outside the house while she was ill. “I felt that nobody could help me, I cried a lot.”
Josephine told a relative what was happening and about a week later was rescued by charity workers, who took her to a shelter.
Advocates said the pandemic has made this community even more vulnerable than it already was. They have urged the government to introduce better protections and revise the live-in rule, which requires domestic workers to live with their employers.
Mawar*, from Indonesia, was used to verbal abuse from her employers but when she got sick with Covid-19 things got worse. They continued asking her to work and her requests for help were ignored, the 27-year-old said. “I had a very high fever and could not breathe. I asked for an ambulance but my employers didn’t want to call one.”
In desperation Mawar contacted the Indonesian consulate and a network for migrant workers, which helped her call the emergency services.
She was given medicine at the hospital but with no beds available she slept on a chair in reception for five days. Her employers never checked on her, she said.
Mawar soon moved to a charity shelter but when she told her employers she had managed to find a place where she could self-isolate and recover, they threatened to call the authorities.
“The next day I resigned, because I was really hurt,” said Mawar, who recently returned to Indonesia.
Sky*, 35, from the Philippines, needed to find a new job when her employers left Hong Kong. But on the day she was due to move into the home of her new boss, the employment contract already signed, she tested positive.
Sky waited outside for seven hours before all her belongings were brought to her. The employer “told me I needed to find a place because I was not her responsibility”.
“She didn’t give me any money. She just told me that if I didn’t find a place to stay, she would call the police.”
Sky eventually found shelter through HELP, a non-profit helping domestic workers. But she is still anxious.
“Last night I was crying and thinking: why did I sign with this kind of employer? She seemed nice at first, but now I see what is happening.”
Sky wants to support her son who is in college, but she wonders what will happen if she falls ill in an employer’s home. “I am scared … maybe she will throw me away in the streets again,” she said.
Other domestic workers have also been sacked while being ill or after returning to employers’ homes following quarantine at government-run centres or charity shelters.
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Some said they faced verbal abuse, like Joy*, a 31-year-old from the Philippines.
“My boss told me I brought the virus. She said it was because I didn’t listen to her and went out during my holiday, but I also had to go to the market every day,” Joy said.
After she tested positive her employer shouted at her, she said. “She wouldn’t let me go inside the house. I felt so embarrassed, I felt like a dirty person.”
Cynthia Abdon-Tellez, general manager of Hong Kong’s Mission for Migrant Workers, said the crisis for domestic workers had reached an alarming level.
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Hong Kong volunteers rescue domestic workers with Covid-19 from the streets
“With the spread of the virus we understand the system is overwhelmed, but domestic workers have been left in the streets, in parks, in the vicinity of hospitals, without places to be admitted to. We did not expect to find so many in the cold weather, so many in need of help,” she said.
Manisha Wijesinghe, executive director of HELP, said it was not just that domestic workers were being asked to leave their employers’ homes and isolate themselves elsewhere – which put a strain on non-profits as government facilities were full – but also that some who quarantined in employers’ houses were treated badly.
“Many of them cannot go to the toilet, they’re given limited food, they don’t get medication. One worker was given a loaf of bread and a pack of noodles for seven days, another was given a pack of diapers so she wouldn’t use the bathroom,” said Wijesinghe.
HELP, which has coordinated the emergency response for Hong Kong’s domestic workers with Covid-19, has supported over 240 women with shelter, food, medical supplies, sanitary items and clothes.
But numbers from several non-profits suggest more than 600 migrant workers required some form of support between mid-February and now.
They are being put into this really vulnerable situation. If their employer tells them not to leave the room for 14 days they cannot refuse
Wijesinghe said many challenges are not new. “It’s just it didn’t happen in such great numbers so it hadn’t become such a crisis situation. It was like a tsunami because Omicron is so infectious,” she said.
The crisis has exposed several flaws that need addressing, she said, including “an element of discrimination. We like to speak about this rhetoric that domestic workers are part of the family”. But what has been highlighted is that “they are employees and they are treated as such. You would not turn away your child”, she said.
The home isolation policy has created a “gap” for people with no control over where they live. “They are being put into this really vulnerable situation.” If their employer tells them not to leave the room for 14 days they cannot refuse, Wijesinghe added.
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Robert Godden, director of communications consultancy Rights Exposure, said advocacy groups have long called for the live-in rule to be a choice, not a requirement, because it enables exploitation.
“The abuse that has taken place during the pandemic linked to this rule – denial of rest days, termination due to infection, excessive working hours – only goes to reinforce the argument that this outdated rule must go,” he said.
Godden said recent events linked to the pandemic are “a symptom of a deeper, more long term problem – the government’s failure to protect the rights of migrant domestic workers”. He also said officials have failed to send the right message to employers.
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A spokesman for the Hong Kong government said in March that the authorities were working with consulates to provide “statutory and compassionate protection” for domestic workers.
The spokesman also said the government “does not and will not tolerate” foreign domestic workers “who have suffered from Covid-19” being illegally dismissed, warning employers could be fined as much as HK$100,000 (US$12,700).
But Godden and other advocates said the government’s messaging was often confusing as it appealed to employers “to act with compassion and kindness, thus framing these legal obligations as if they were voluntary”.
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Godden also thought the government should have said it will “support and expedite cases brought before the Labour Tribunal and the Equal Opportunities Commission”.
Father John Wotherspoon, an Australian priest involved in setting up shelters for domestic workers, said it was “nearly impossible” for those wrongly dismissed to start a court case due to the lengthy procedures.
The government should consider giving financial support to domestic workers, just as it has to permanent residents, he said. Around HK$5,000 (US$630) could be “a gesture of goodwill”.
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Catherine Gurtin, CEO of the non-profit PathFinders, which supports children born to migrant mothers, talked of “a lot of fear and anxiety. But we need to be reminded that we need to care for those who care for us, so nobody suffers unnecessarily”.
Shiela Tebia-Bonifacio has worked in the city for over a decade and is chairwoman of Filipino rights group Gabriela Hong Kong. She was frustrated to see how many domestic workers have been let down by employers and the government.
“We don’t feel our work is valued, we contribute a lot but we are trapped inside the houses or we are simply kicked out if we fall sick. The reason why the women and men of Hong Kong can go out and earn money is because there are domestic workers who look after their houses and kids. At least we deserve to be treated as human beings.”
* Names have been changed to protect identities
