Foreign maids, mostly from Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand, are working in slave conditions in Hong Kong, a UN-backed group was told yesterday.
In a report by a coalition of 11 domestic helpers' groups, a hearing under the UN's Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women was told that maids suffer "systematic practices of forced labor and debt bondage."
The report, presented at a hearing in New York, is based on research done by the University of Hong Kong's Center for Comparative and Public Law that involved in-depth interviews with 22 foreign domestic helpers.
Co-author of the research Peggy Lee Woon-yee said: "The government has not actually prevented forced labor and debt bondage because these are going on all the time. They have failed to do any effective action to curb it."
The Asian Migrants Co-ordinating Body said Indonesians had been "compelled to pay placement fees ranging from HK$6,000 to HK$21,000 (US$769 to US$2,692)" to employment agencies who often disguise the fees as loans.
The agencies then tell the maids' employers to divert most of the monthly salary to a finance company or agent.
With Indonesian domestic helpers paid below the mandatory minimum wage of HK$3,400 a month, some were left "with little or no salary for three to seven months," the migrants body said.
The coalition's report said it should be a criminal offence for an employer to pay any portion of the worker's salary to a third party.
There are about 130,000 foreign domestic helpers working in Hong Kong.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
IN PURSUIT: Israel’s defense minister said the revenge attacks by Israeli settlers would make it difficult for security forces to find those responsible for the 14-year-old’s death Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday condemned the “heinous murder” of an Israeli teenager in the occupied West Bank as attacks on Palestinian villages intensified following news of his death. After Benjamin Achimeir, 14, was reported missing near Ramallah on Friday, hundreds of Jewish settlers backed by Israeli forces raided nearby Palestinian villages, torching vehicles and homes, leaving at least one villager dead and dozens wounded. The attacks escalated in several villages on Saturday after Achimeir’s body was found near the Malachi Hashalom outpost. Agence France-Presse correspondents saw smoke rising from burned houses and fields. Mayor Amin Abu Alyah, of the