RI maid faces deportation from HK for selling food

RI maid faces deportation from HK for selling food

Associated Press, Hong Kong

An Indonesian maid viewed as a heroine for fighting back when an employer underpaid her is being kicked out of Hong Kong for selling a boxed lunch worth just HK$10 (US$1.30), a labor activist said on Wednesday.

The visa conditions for the 40-year-old woman, identified only as Herawati, did not allow her to conduct business, but she was arrested on March 21 for allegedly selling lunches in a park where maids congregate on their day off.

Herawati became a heroine to many of Hong Kong's foreign maids when she testified against an employer who was convicted last year for underpayment, said Edwina Antonia-Santoyo, executive director of Bethune House, a shelter for overseas domestic helpers who are abused.

Hong Kong has more than 200,000 foreign maids, most of them Filipinos, followed by Indonesians and smaller numbers of Nepalese, Thais and Sri Lankans.

Herawati claims she was helping someone look after the boxed lunches and not actually selling them, according to Antonia- Santoyo, but Herawati appeared on Monday before Magistrate William Lam and pleaded guilty to breaching her conditions of stay.

Lam sentenced Herawati to six weeks in jail - time she had already served after being arrested - and ordered her deported. Antonia-Santoyo said Herawati was expected to be deported this week.

Immigration officials and Herawati's lawyer did not immediately return phone calls from The Associated Press.