Indonesian Women Trafficked To Hong Kong Risk Slavery

Jakarta, Nov 21 (Antara) - Thousands of Indonesian women trafficked to Hong Kong risk slavery-like conditions as domestic workers, with both governments failing to protect them from widespread abuse and exploitation, according to Amnesty International (AI). A new report, Exploited for Profit, Failed by Governments, exposes how Indonesian recruitment agencies and placement agents in Hong Kong traffic Indonesian women for exploitation and forced labour, AI said in a statement on Thursday. Abuses include restrictions on freedom of movement, physical and sexual violence, lack of food, and excessive and exploitative hours. "From the moment the women are tricked into signing up for work in Hong Kong, they are trapped in a cycle of exploitation with cases that amount to modern-day slavery," said Norma Kang Muico, Asia-Pacific Migrant Rights Researcher at Amnesty International. The findings are based on in-depth interviews with 97 Indonesian migrant domestic workers and supported by a survey of nearly 1,000 women by the Indonesian Migrant Workers Union. There are more than 300,000 migrant domestic workers in Hong Kong, with about half from Indonesia and nearly all are women. Lured with the promise of well-paid jobs the reality for the women could not be more different. "It is inexcusable that the Hong Kong and Indonesian governments turn a blind eye to the trafficking of thousands of vulnerable women for forced labour. The authorities may point to a raft of national laws that supposedly protect these women but such laws are rarely enforced," said Muico. In Indonesia, prospective migrant domestic workers are compelled to go through government-licensed recruitment agencies including for pre-departure training. These agencies, and the brokers that act for them, routinely deceive women about salaries and fees, confiscate identity documents and other property as collateral, and charge fees in excess of those permitted by law. Full fees are imposed from the outset of training, trapping the women with crippling debt should they withdraw. Women from several different training centres also reported that they were forced to have a contraception injection. Many women said the training staff frequently taunted, abused and threatened them with the cancellation of their employment application. The vast majority could not freely leave the training centres. The report also exposes that recruitment agencies routinely fail to provide migrant workers with legally required documentation including their contract, mandatory insurance and foreign employment identity card which also undermines their means of redress. When a migrant domestic worker arrives in Hong Kong, they are tightly controlled by their local placement agency and often by their employer. The vast majority of the women interviewed by Amnesty International had their documents taken by either their employer or the placement agency in Hong Kong. About a third were not allowed to leave their employer's house. "Both the Indonesian and Hong Kong governments need to show genuine commitment to tackling the human and labour rights violations exposed in this report." Amnesty International is calling on both governments to swiftly ratify and implement the International Labour Organization's Domestic Workers Convention.