The data that lays bare the hidden links in Hong Kong’s domestic helper employment industry

While agencies and moneylenders sharing addresses may not suggest anything illegal, developers say they want to arm workers and employers with knowledge of who they are dealing with

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Jonah Bolotin with the visualisation, which he said showed more overlap in the industry than the researchers expected to find. Photo: Edmond So

Published: 9:03am, 15 Jul 2018Updated: 9:57am, 16 Jul 2018

With allegations of collusion between agencies and moneylenders rife in Hong Kong’s domestic helper employment industry, a group of American students has worked with a local academic to – quite literally – join the dots between the firms, aiming to put more knowledge in the hands of workers, employers and the authorities.

The team – five Stanford University students, a fraud investigator and a professor from the University of Hong Kong – is launching a data visualiser that exposes suspicious connections involving employment agencies in the city, responsible for recruiting – and, in some cases, deceiving – thousands of domestic workers every year.

“The point is to illustrate potentially suspicious or concerning relationships that are existing between agencies where probably there should not be any in a marketplace operating in an ethical way,” said Jonah Bolotin, 22, an American software engineer and recent Stanford graduate.

The digital diagram shows clusters of linked agencies and moneylenders in Hong Kong. Photo: Edmond So

“We had speculated that there would be some overlapping relationships, but what we found was even more interesting.”

The tool, already available online, shows how intricate the connections between different employment agencies and moneylenders are in Hong Kong. Many of them share addresses, phone or fax numbers and email addresses.