Under-Protected Abroad, Domestic Workers Find Ways to Resist

Resisting Discrimination

The Asia-Pacific region is home to more than 38 million domestic workers—more than any other region, even without counting China’s 22 million domestic workers. Some 4.2 million domestic workers are originally from Southeast Asia, where industrialisation and environmental destruction have driven farmers off their land and into low-paying informal work in urban areas that can hardly sustain a family. Most of these domestic workers are women from the Philippines, Indonesia and increasingly Vietnam, who migrate to places like Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and even as far as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

In Hong Kong, the government has enacted pandemic-related policies that specifically target domestic workers. In late April, the government singled out around 370,000 migrant domestic workers for mass testing and vaccination after only two had tested positive for COVID-19. Other occupations, as well as the domestic workers’ employers, whom they live with, were not included in the plan.

“This is an act of discrimination carried out by the [Hong Kong] government against migrant workers,” says Aluh Ibrahim, a 37-year old Indonesian domestic worker in Hong Kong who serves as secretary of the Indonesian Migrant Workers’ Union.

Since June, whenever she goes grocery shopping, Ibrahim has been sporting a white T-shirt emblazoned with a red ribbon, the logo of a local campaign known as iRED, which stands for “I resist exclusion and discrimination”.

Co-organised by Indonesian and Filipino migrant workers’ unions in Hong Kong, iRED opposes discriminatory COVID-19 policies that exclusively target domestic workers. 

Domestic workers protest against the Hong Kong government’s discriminatory Covid-19 policies outside the Indonesian consulate in May 2021. IMWU

In addition to donning her iRed shirt, Ibrahim has participated in online dialogues with Indonesian consulate officials to request support for migrant workers in navigating Hong Kong’s mandatory testing and vaccination plan. She has also participated in an online advocacy campaign calling out discrimination against migrant workers in Hong Kong’s COVID-19 response.

“Everyone has the potential to catch the virus, but why are only migrant workers required to be tested and forced to be vaccinated? Migrant workers are accused of spreading the virus, even though the number of migrant workers infected with the virus is very small compared to local residents who have contracted the virus,” Ibrahim says.

“We do not refuse to be tested or vaccinated as long as our bodies are healthy, and this should apply to everyone in Hong Kong,” she adds. 

Discrimination against domestic workers in Hong Kong did not start with the pandemic. They were already guaranteed a lower minimum wage than other labourers. Often working more than 12 hours a day, domestic workers earn a monthly minimum wage of HK$4,630, plus meals provided by employers or a food allowance of HK$1,173, for a total of about $5,800 per month. For other workers, the statutory minimum wage is set at HK$37.50 per hour, equivalent to HK$6,000 per month for a 40-hour work week.

Eventually, following protests outside Hong Kong’s Central Government Complex and additional pressure from the Philippine and Indonesian governments, the Hong Kong government scrapped the mandatory vaccination plan on 4 May. The mandatory testing requirements, however, remained in place for a second round after just three domestic workers tested positive out of the more than 340,000 who gave samples in the first round.

Sringatin, chairperson of the Indonesian Migrant Workers’ Union, holds a banner in protest of discriminatory COVID-19 policies outside Hong Kong’s Central Government Offices in June 2021. IMWU

• Sebelumnya
• 1
• 2
• 3
• Selanjutnya