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Abuse and exploitation of foreign domestic workers rising

20 January 20170 comments

The abuse and exploitation of foreign domestic workers is a growing issue and one exacerbated by increasing numbers of people displaced from their homes in developing nations by war, famine and climate change, international aid agencies say.

Around 55 million people, overwhelmingly women, are employed as domestic workers in private households around the world.

While domestic workers are now considered critical to many national economies, they are increasingly vulnerable to exploitation, abuse and modern-day slavery, the agencies say.

Human rights agencies have catalogued a litany of exploitation faced by domestic workers at the hands of their employers, including forced labour, rape, daily beatings and being forced to work long hours with no breaks.

According to the International Domestic Workers Federation (IDWF), employers who exploit or underpay their domestic workers are illegally pocketing $US8 billion a year.

The vulnerability of domestic workers is rooted in the nature of their work – typically undertaken behind closed doors in private homes far from their own communities – and the lack of legal protection they receive.

In some countries domestic workers are bound to their employers through tied-visa systems, which prevents them from leaving to seek employment elsewhere even if they face violence and exploitation.

In the Gulf states, the IDWF says that more than two million workers are effectively enslaved.

Most are migrant workers from developing nations such as the Philippines, India, Sri Lanka and Nepal who are recruited to work in private households in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Oman.

Upon arrival in any of these countries, domestic workers fall under the regional kafala system, meaning the consent of the “sponsor” family is required if they wish to leave their employment.

In countries that enforce the kafala system strictly such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar, it is illegal for domestic workers to flee abusive employers.

The IDWF, Human Rights Watch and the International Trade Union Confederation have documented the abuse of maids and domestic servants in private households in the UAE, with widespread sexual violence, beatings, confiscation of passports and non-payment of wages.

Unmarried domestic workers who become pregnant can be charged with illicit relations and imprisoned with their babies.

In 2015, eight maids took shelter with their children at the Philippine Embassy in Riyadh facing jail for illicit behaviour, even though they claimed they had been raped by their employers.

Also in 2015, Hong Kong was scandalised by a court case in which the wealthy employer of an Indonesian domestic worker was convicted of 18 counts of inflicting grievous bodily harm.

In Hong Kong, there are more than 340,000 foreign domestic workers, who make up about five per cent of the territory’s total population. They can be found in one in every seven households.

Overwhelmingly female, they are vulnerable to exploitation and abuse, even though local lawmakers have enacted provisions to protect their basic rights.

A prosperous trade hub, Hong Kong became a desirable destination for foreign domestic workers starting in the mid-1970s, as several Southeast Asian countries began rapidly exporting female labour to more developed economies.

Today the foreign domestic workforce in Hong Kong comes mainly from the Philippines and Indonesia, with smaller numbers from Thailand, India, and Sri Lanka.

Hong Kong has been successful in attracting foreign professionals and investors. There are laws in place to protect foreign workers and attract high-skilled immigrants, but these laws specifically exclude domestic workers, leaving them particularly vulnerable to exploitation.

Foreign domestic are not allowed to bring their dependents with them. Domestic workers are obliged to leave Hong Kong at the end of their two-year employment contract to renew their work visa.

Foreign domestic workers are also explicitly excluded from statutory minimum wage provisions in Hong Kong, set at $HK32.5 ($US4.19) per hour. Instead, domestic workers get less than half the statutory minimum wage, earning an average $HK15.10 ($US1.95) hourly.

Typically, foreign domestic workers work overtime because of a blurred boundary between life and work. The ‘live-in’ requirement enforced by the government, which makes it compulsory for foreign domestic workers to live in the home of their employer, contributes to this.

The result, according to the IDWF and others, is an adverse effect on privacy, working hours, and accommodations.

Domestic workers in Hong Kong work an average of 12 hours per day, six days a week, according to Justice Centre, a nonprofit migrant-rights organisation.

Meanwhile, high housing costs coupled with crowded conditions make it difficult for domestic workers to have private space.

Laurie Nowell
AMES Australia Senior Journalist