HONG KONG: Amid increasing incidents of maids falling to death from tower block windows, domestic helpers in Hong Kong on Sunday staged a march to urge the country’s government to ban employers from asking household workers to clean the outside of windows.
There are 300,000 maids in Hong Kong, mostly from the Philippines and Indonesia, with concern growing among rights groups over their welfare following several abuse cases, reported Agence France-Presse.
A 35-year-old Filipina domestic helper reportedly fell to her death last month as she was reportedly cleaning the outside of the windows of her employer’s flat.
Organizers of Sunday’s rally reportedly said they believed at least three maids had died after falling from windows this year.
Hundreds of helpers marched in the center of Hong Kong Sunday shouting “We are workers, not slaves!”
“For us it’s hard to say no when employers ask us to clean windows, but it’s scary,” Dolores Balladares, a spokeswoman for the Asian Migrants’ Coordinating Body, reportedly said. “It’s about time for the government to protect the workers.”
Thai domestic worker Waen Takruerat, 42, said the majority of maids were expected to clean windows inside and out.
“It’s scary and dangerous so I told my boss I can’t do it,” she reportedly told Agence France-Presse.
The plight of maids in Hong Kong was thrown into the spotlight by the case of Indonesian helper Erwiana Sulistyaningsih, who was beaten and starved by her employer Law Wan-tung in a case that made world headlines.
Law was jailed in February 2015 for 6 years, said the news agency.
