Indonesian maids slam exploitation in Hong Kong<\/p>\n
HONG KONG (Agencies): Some 80 Indonesian migrant workers
\nstaged a rally on Friday to protest against alleged exploitation
\nby employers, recruitment agencies and the Indonesian government.<\/p>\n
The maids marched from Victoria Park in Causeway Bay to the
\nIndonesian consulate, chanting slogans and carrying banners
\nproclaiming, \"We are not commodities, we are human beings\".<\/p>\n
The Association of Indonesian Migrant Workers (AIMW), one of
\nthe joint organizers of the protest, said in a statement that the
\nIndonesian domestic helpers had decided to hold the rally to call
\nfor an end to abuse and exploitation.<\/p>\n
\"The majority of the 59,000 Indonesian migrant workers in Hong
\nKong face exploitation and abuse at the hands of their money-
\ngrabbing employment agencies, fraudulent employers and corrupt
\nconsulate,\" it said as reported by AFP.<\/p>\n
Although remittances from maids make up a substantial
\ncontribution to the Indonesian economy, they claim that the
\nconsulate and the government had failed to adequately protect the
\nbasic rights of their workers abroad, it added.<\/p>\n
Many workers are bound by recruitment agents who arrange for
\nthem to come to Hong Kong to work and then tie them to commission
\nfees, sometimes amounting to up to six months salary, it said.<\/p>\n
Under Hong Kong's migrant worker regulations which stipulate
\nemployers' contractual obligations, agents can only charge their
\nrecruits HK$367 (US$46).<\/p>\n
However in practice most agents charge considerably more. Many
\nof the Indonesian maids in Hong Kong are forced to pay between
\nHK$10,000 and HK$25,000, the Hong Kong-based Asian Migrant Center
\n(AMC) said.<\/p>\n
Some 80 percent of Indonesian workers in Hong Kong are also
\npaid well below the HK$3,670 monthly minimum wage set by the
\ngovernment for migrant workers, it added.<\/p>\n
Hong Kong labor department handled 1,786 pay and contract
\nclaims involving foreign domestic helpers between January and
\nOctober 2000 compared with 2,280 for the whole of 1999.<\/p>\n
Trial<\/p>\n
In a separate development an Indonesian maid has gone on trial
\nin Hong Kong accused of shaking to death a five-month-old baby
\nboy in her care.<\/p>\n
DPA reported on Thursday that 29-year-old Sumiyati denied in
\ncourt the manslaughter of Yip Ho-yin who was rushed to hospital
\nand died of massive head injuries in October last year.<\/p>\n
Sumiyati was caring for the boy, the son of a university
\nassistant professor and a nurse, when he fell ill in October last
\nyear, a court hearing was told on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The infant underwent emergency surgery after a brain scan
\nshowed bleeding in the skull but he died soon afterwards. An
\nexpert witness testified that Ho-yin had been shaken between five
\nand 24 hours before his death.<\/p>\n
According to the Hong Kong Mail the case comes two months
\nafter another Indonesian maid was cleared of shaking a baby to
\ndeath in her care in Hong Kong after the judge ruled that medical
\nevidence was contradictory.<\/p>",
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