Indonesian maids in demand in HK

Indonesian maids in demand in HK

Deutsche Presse-Agentur, Hong Kong, China

Hong Kong families hired 13,000 more Indonesian maids last year, leading to a 24 percent jump in the number of Indonesian migrant workers in the territory, a news report said on Friday.

The number of Indonesian domestic helpers working in Hong Kong rose to 68,400 by the end of November, while the number of Filipino maids rose less than 3 percent to 155,790.

Many Hong Kong families are believed to be switching to Indonesian helpers during the economic downturn because the women often work for considerably less than the legal minimum wage of US$480 a month, the South China Morning Post reported.

Apart from Filipinos and Thais, 7,000 Thai women and 3,930 women from other countries including Sri Lanka are employed as live-in domestic helpers in Hong Kong, the Immigration Department statistics show.

The number of Indonesian maids has grown rapidly in recent years and many of them work for illegal rates of between $230 and $250 a month.

A surge in unemployment to 5.5 percent after the economy deteriorated following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States prompted some in Hong Kong to call for a further reduction.

The Hong Kong government is currently reviewing the minimum wage for foreign domestic helpers and is expected to announce a cut of between 5 and 20 percent at the end of this month because of the economic downturn.

Hong Kong last slashed the maids' salary from HK$3,860 ($495) during the territory's 1999 recession -- and maids are worried they're about to get shortchanged again.

As Hong Kong considers another cut in the minimum wage of foreign housemaids, four Asian countries told the government it would be an unfair blow to their citizens working here as live-in helpers.

The Philippines teamed up with Thailand, Indonesia and Nepal and sent a letter early December to Secretary for Education and Manpower Fanny Law asking that officials here stop the salary review. Together the four countries send Hong Kong 99 percent of its maids.