HONG KONG: Thousands of people rallied here yesterday to demand justice for a young Indonesian maid who was badly beaten by her employer in a case that has sparked widespread outrage and a police investigation into accusations of torture.
The ill-treatment of foreign domestic workers in Asian and Gulf regions such as Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and Dubai has been a long-standing problem but the severe injuries suffered by the Indonesian maid have drawn fresh attention to the risks faced by this migrant community.
“We are workers. We are not slaves,” chanted a crowd of several thousand domestic workers and their supporters as they marched to Hong Kong’s government headquarters. Some waved the red and white flag of Indonesia, while others held up grisly photographs of the battered face and body of the 23-year-old maid, Erwiana Sulistyaningsih.
“We have to end modern day slavery like this,” said Ila Hasan, 32, a domestic worker from Indonesia’s island of Java, who wore a red shawl and a blue bandana emblazoned with the word ‘Justice’.
Hong Kong, a former British territory that returned to Chinese rule in 1997, has around 300,000 foreign domestic helpers, most of them from the Philippines and Indonesia. AFP
