Hong Kong to limit foreign maids

Hong Kong to limit foreign maids

CHINA: As Hong Kong struggles with record unemployment, the government is thinking of freezing the number of foreigners who work here as housemaids, a newspaper reported on Friday.

Hong Kong families employ more than 200,000 live-in domestic helpers, the majority of them from the Philippines, with the second-largest number coming from Indonesia.

The South China Morning Post quoted a government spokesman, who was not identified, as saying a quota system was under consideration to help provide job opportunities for Hong Kong people. The story did not mention any numbers for a quota.

Unemployment recently hit a record 7.7 percent in Hong Kong and many fear it will go higher as the once-booming economy sputters. --AP