Hong Kong - Indebted Indonesian workers endure mistreatment in HK

As a very liberal metropolitan city, Hong Kong is usually considered one of the better places to work as a domestic helper in the region.

However, although guaranteed a minimum wage of HK$3,740 (US$480) per month and possibly the right to abode in the future, Indonesian domestic helpers are still among the most exploited in Hong Kong.

Newly arrived Indonesian domestic helpers are usually forced to compromise on their religious beliefs, and some of them develop homosexual relationships due to exploitation in Hong Kong, according to British sociologist Paul O'Connor.

Trapped in "debt bondage", a large loan borrowed from the employment agencies that domestic workers pay off though labor over a lengthy period of time, many Indonesians remain silent due to "the need to earn money, pay off their debt and not get into trouble", O'Connor said in a talk recently at the Hong Kong Museum of History on behalf of the Hong Kong Anthropological Society.

Eni Lestari, one of the first Indonesian domestic workers to go to Hong Kong more than 10 years ago, said: "Many Hong Kong families don't like us to pray in the house. One of my employers once told me to stop kissing the floor, because it was so dirty. They also didn't like me wearing white, because it's a symbol of death in Chinese culture."

"Sometimes it really pisses us off, but because so many of us have been terminated and sent back without earning any money, we try to compromise by not practicing our religion," said Lestari, the chairperson of the Association for Indonesian Migrant Workers in Hong Kong. "Also, because we must pay agency fees, in reality we don't receive any wages for a long time; so we have to endure all kinds of treatment to get through the first few months."

Lestari's colleague, Sringatin, was underpaid for almost a year when she first arrived. "When I signed the contract, the agency didn't tell me about Hong Kong's minimum wage," she said, "They told me I was a newcomer, so [they gave me] only HK$2,000 [$200 a month]... You can talk to the employer about it [underpayment] and be terminated, or keep silent and finish the contract."

She also complained that the Indonesian government failed to provide adequate information for workers like her.

Both Lestari and Sringatin said they had been forced to eat pork and take off their headscarves in their employers' houses. Having lived in Hong Kong for years, they don't wear headscarves or pray five times a day any more. "There's no time, and the employers always complain, so we just gave it up. It's easier that way," Lestari said.

Amy Sim, a sociologist who has studied Southeast Asian migrant workers in Hong Kong for more than a decade, said that the HK$21,000 (US$2,700) that employment agencies in Indonesia charged prospective domestic workers was a "cartel price" to which the Indonesian government turned a blind eye.

"It is a private-sector agreement turned into government policy," she said.

This policy is problematic, Sim said, because it is based on the assumption that one can finish paying off the debt. However, many Indonesian helpers' debt ends up increasing over the years.

Many agencies encourage employers to dismiss helpers at will, so that the agencies can attract more customers and make a profit from helpers who have to pay to repeat the training process.

"The fear of being terminated without paying off the debt forces helpers to put up with all [sorts of] mistreatment," Sim said.

Doris Lee, an employer who founded Open Door, which unites Hong Kong families to help create respect and justice for domestic workers, said that employers were also victims in the hiring process.

"Agencies misinform both workers and employers. They proactively call up employers to encourage them to change helpers whenever we want. They start to offer promotions like two for one, which is really turning the helpers into commodities," Lee said.

"Also, most of us are not aware that paying a third party violates the law, but the agencies encourage us to do so. They just fill out all the forms for us. Very rarely is the agency legally liable, because [in Hong Kong] it's the employers' obligation."

Vulnerability from debt bondage and mistreatment at work also contribute to the significant presence of homosexual relationships among Indonesian domestic helpers, which is taboo in Islamic belief.

A young helper Ryan who recently came to work at a senior house, said: "[We] have so many [homosexual relationships] here, maybe 50 percent. [I am homosexual] because maybe no men [are] in here. We want to make love, but Islam doesn't allow [it], so [we] have somebody as a girlfriend."

Setya, another helper in her 20s, sees homosexuality as another aspect of the freedom that Indonesian women enjoy far from the restrictions of their conservative society.

"If we have a girlfriend, we can borrow money from each other," said Setya, an Indonesian domestic helper who just arrived in Hong Kong four months ago, "It's also fun. We see lots of Hong Kong people [who] are so stylish. It's fantastic. I think I can be like her or him. There's much more freedom here."

Lestari, now stepping down from her current position to engage the Indonesian community on a more international level, said that homosexual relationships usually start from the intensive everyday interactions domestic helpers have in the training centers.

"One of the ways to pass all these years alone overseas is to find a female partner," Lestari said. "It's not something they had planned. For seven months, they live and sleep together without being allowed to go out. Same-sex relationships are comforting. They just want somebody to love, care for them before they go home and marry a man."

Sociologist Sim observed that intimacy comes naturally in a state of alienation, but because premarital sex is against their religion, these women try to develop relationships with women to keep their honor at home. "It is trendy and fashionable to assert sexuality. Homosexuality is seen as powerful, because it makes positive statements about themselves and opens a whole space of freedom for them," said Sim.

According to the Association of Indonesian Domestic Helpers in Hong Kong (ATKIHK), the number of Indonesian domestic helpers reached almost 136,000 by April last year. It has become the biggest population of foreign domestic workers and the largest ethnic minority in Hong Kong.

They are also the most exploited. A survey carried out among almost 3,000 Indonesian migrants by the association says that as many as 93 percent of them have been overcharged by agencies, and 53 percent of them have been underpaid.

Xinyan Yu

The Jakarta Post

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