Indonesian Maids are Hong Kong’s ‘Modern-Day Slaves’

Another case of brutal mistreatment points to a systemic failure to protect domestic workers

A foreign domestic helper holds a placard as she takes part in a May Day rally in Hong Kong on May 1, 2013.

When Indonesian domestic worker Erwiana Sulistyaningsih departed from Hong Kong last Friday, she left a nightmare behind her. Eight months of alleged beatings by her employer had disfigured the 23-year-old so badly she was barely recognizable. A gaunt, pockmarked face with chipped teeth had replaced her once smooth, girlish features. Her feet, scalded with hot water, were black in color and had open sores.

Her case is another damning instance of the abuses faced by foreign domestic workers in Hong Kong. Foreign maids have been a ubiquitous feature of Hong Kong life since the 1970s, when the citys economy began to boom. Local women entered the labor force on a large scale and hired domestic workers from the Philippines, and subsequently Indonesia and Thailand, to keep households running.

After decades of toiling away in the anonymous confines of Hong Kongs high-rise homes, domestic helpers, now numbering around 300,000, are making their voices heard more effectively, campaigning for better working conditions, higher wages and entitlement to permanent residency.

(MORE:Indonesia Pushes for Better Migrant-Worker Protection)

True, legal protections are better in Hong Kong than in the Middle East and other East Asian countries that are large markets for foreign domestic workers, such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia and Singapore. But helpers in Hong Kong are nonetheless vulnerable and often defenseless once disaster strikes. A 2012 Mission for Migrant Workers survey found that 18% of migrant domestic workers in the city had been physically abused. The Indonesian maid Kartika Puspitasari became a cause clbre last summer, when her two-year-long torture in the hands of a sadistic couple was made public. The revelation of Erwianas ordeal throws an uncomfortable spotlight on the treatment of domestic workers yet again.

Unable to walk when she arrived home, Erwiana needed the help of a fellow domestic worker she met at Hong Kong International Airport. Five days after arrival, she is still in hospital, but her uncle Shomat tells TIME she is doing better. We were shocked, and we feel pained seeing her in this condition, he says.

(MORE:Hong Kong Employer May Have Tortured Second Indonesian Maid)

If she is lucky, Erwiana will get justice.Her family says they are determined to seek legal action against her former employer, and the Indonesian government has pledged to provide a lawyer for her. Other Indonesians, however, may never get redress. In a November report, Amnesty International singled out Indonesians as particularly vulnerable in Hong Kong. Unlike Filipinas, the other major group of domestic helpers in Hong Kong, Indonesians are required to find employment through recruitment agencies. These agencies are supposed to provide them with training, set up their contracts and arrange their visas. However, Amnesty found that the agencies failed to adequately represent the interests of women on their books.

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Indonesian Maids are Hong Kong's 'Modern-Day Slaves'