Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo was greeted by a mixture of celebration and protest in Hong Kong Sunday with calls to improve working conditions for the city’s army of foreign maids. There are around 170,000 Indonesians living in Hong Kong, many of them employed as domestic helpers, and concern over exploitation is growing after a string of abuse cases. There are more than 300,000 domestic helpers in Hong Kong, mostly from the Philippines and Indonesia. A report last year by the Justice Centre found that one in six foreign maids in Hong Kong fell into the “forced labour” category. Last September hundreds of maids marched through Hong Kong after several helpers fell to their deaths as they tried to clean tower block windows.

Source: Dhaka Tribune April 30, 2017 10:18 UTC