US hits abuse of Filipino Domestic Helpers in Hong Kong

As all of us know that domestic helpers all over the world especially in Hong Kong suffered abuse from their own employer. Not all but so many. Our family back home did not know really what is happening to us, it is because we just post nice and happy pictures in Facebook. For me, my reason is I really don't want them to see and know how hard to work abroad especially being a domestic helper. The United States has criticized the abuses suffered by foreign domestic helpers in Hong Kong and urged the territory's  government to enact a comprehensive anti-trafficking law to prevent these from happening. In it's 2015 Trafficking in Persons Report, the US State Department said Hong Kong was a destination, transit, and source territory for men, women, and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor. 

More than 320,000 foreign domestic workers from Indonesia, the Philippines, Burma, and Bangladesh work in Hong Kong; some become victims of forced labor in the private homes in which they are employed. It is because recruiters in the Philippines and Indonesia generally charge excessive job placement fees, which may lead to situations of debt bondage in Hong Kong. And those that their contract is being terminated by their employer or the domestic helper will be the one who break  contract have a hard time to find new employer because some domestic worker employment agencies in Hong Kong charge fees in excess of the maximum allowed under Hong Kong law. And the accumulated debts sometimes amount to up to 80 percent of worker's salaries for the first six to seven months of employment. And some worker's are unwilling to report abusive employers for fear of losing their jobs and being unable to repay their debts; some employers or employment agencies illegally withhold passports, employment contracts, or other possessions until the debt is paid. And even if you don't have debt from employment agency, there is really employers who take the passport and employment contracts. Even though it is illegal, me myself cannot do anything about this in fear that my employer will terminate my contract.

The US State Department also noted that domestic workers have also reported working 17-hour's a day, and that is really true. Some is available 24 hours a day because the employer will call  even if it is one o'clock in the morning and you just go to bed to rest. Some is receiving less than minimum wage, experiencing physical or verbal abuse and confinement in their employer’s home, and not receiving a legally required weekly day off. And I have my own experience that. For two years in Malaysia, I never have my day off. This is some of the things that domestic helper suffered from the hands of their employers. Sad to say but the only thing that give courage to all OFW to continue their work even if it is really so hard is the love for their family, the dreams that one day soon, they/we can give brighter future to our children in the highest form of education. This is the life that OFW endured, I hope that through my blog, I can reach out some family that they have relatives in other country. For them to know that life for us here working abroad is like a bed of roses but full of thorns.