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.