Dozens of live-in workers have been forced to sleep rough in the Hong Kong winter after bosses refuse to allow them back in the house
The problem is exacerbated by strict policies of mandatory isolation for patients and close contacts, with tens of thousands of people unable to find accommodation.
Maria*, a domestic worker from the Philippines, tested positive on a rapid antigen test. She said her employer gave her three options – pay for her own stay in a quarantine hotel for two weeks, go to hospital and “tell them I am very sick”, or have her contract terminated. HELP said they were assisting more than 100 workers left homeless, including at least a dozen who were fired or ordered not to return to the home.
“We are proactively engaging also the employers to explain to them that terminating their employees in these difficult times especially when they are positive is not only illegal. It is immoral.” But leaving the women homeless, some for up to three or four nights in Hong Kong’s winter, was “untenable”.Foreign Domestic Workers gather together in Admiralty on their one day off a week. Due to social distancing regulations, many foreign workers were careful to limit their groups to two as they sheltered from the cold and rain.
“They gave me a tent and a thick blanket so I wouldn’t feel cold. I slept the whole night outside the boarding house,” she said. Mai has since moved to a shelter, but the NGOs say the facilities, which usually house people in between jobs or waiting for flights home, are ill equipped to also isolate Covid patients.
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