AUGUST 16, 1999 VOL. 154 NO. 6

Out of the Frying Pan...
Indonesians flocking to Hong Kong to seek better jobs as maids are finding fraud and exploitation
By MARIA CHENG Hong Kong

When Siti left her village in Indonesia six months ago, the local economy was in shambles. The 20-year-old former student intended to earn enough money in Hong Kong, working as a maid, to support her family back home. Siti worked for six months--often 18 hours a day, for employers who wouldn't allow her a weekly day off--but she wasn't able to send one cent back to Blitar, her home in East Java. The employment agency that landed her in Hong Kong swallowed her entire $175 monthly salary. "I had to leave," says Siti. "I wasn't getting any money, and my employers hit me every day. I couldn't take it anymore."

Hong Kong has found a new group of people to do its housework and diaper-changing: young women escaping the ill fortunes of Indonesia. There are now 44,700 Indonesians working in the territory, most of them as maids, a 30% climb from just a year ago. They are the second group to step into the canvas shoes of the bob-haired Chinese amahs of decades past. The Indonesians' immediate predecessors were the armies of maids from the Philippines, who have become as recognizable a feature of Hong Kong life as the Star Ferry--especially when they gather by the thousands on the streets every Sunday, their day off.

What the Indonesian maids are discovering, however, is that it requires a large army of sympathetic compatriots to gain protection from fraud and employer abuse. And even at 45,000 strong, these newcomers remain vulnerable. "Hong Kong people treat their Indonesian domestic helpers like slaves," says Nelsy Hasibuan, the liaison for Indonesians at the Asian Migrant Center, a private group that champions the rights of domestics, "but the Indonesians are too scared to do anything." Astri, 24, lived for seven months in a tiny storeroom and kept house for a Hong Kong Chinese family. On three occasions, her employer fired her, screaming that she "go back to Indonesia." Astri begged to stay each time--even though her $175 monthly pay was less than 40% of Hong Kong's mandated minimum wage for domestics. "That was the only job I could get," she says.

The Indonesians' relatively recent arrival on the scene, together with their smaller numbers, makes them especially exploitable. There are 139,800 Philippine citizens working in the territory, mostly in domestic service, and they've had a lock on that industry for decades. Support groups have sprung up, along with an extensive grapevine. Before they get on the plane for Hong Kong, many Filipinas know what their rights are, how recruiting agents might try to fleece them and where to turn for help. The Indonesians are new at the game. Sutiin, a 29-year-old from East Java, has signed a contract testifying that she receives the minimum wage. In fact, she earns only $256 a month and suspects that her Hong Kong employment agency is pocketing the balance. "They told me I had to sign it," she says, "or I couldn't get a job." Tony Chan, managing director of Pacific Jet Consultants, an employment agency that doesn't hire Indonesians, says the racket is well known. "I hear those Indonesian agents are making a fortune. All that money has to be going somewhere."

Once in Hong Kong, the maids discover they can expect little help from the establishment. The government barely enforces the minimum-wage law. The Legislative Council even voted in February to reduce the statutory wage, reasoning that all sectors of society should share Hong Kong's economic pinch. (The maids, led by Philippine groups, argued that their wages were already low enough.) Jennifer Chow, who sits on one of two municipal councils, recommends deeper cuts in the maids' minimum wage. "I think the $250 some Indonesians are making shows what the market price for a domestic helper is," she asserts.

But as the number of Indonesian workers grow, so does awareness of their rights. Evi Setia Dewi, 29, was earning $225 a month taking care of two households. She discovered she was being cheated after discussing the situation with a Philippine friend. There are even signs that the Indonesians are organizing. Sunik Karyawiti landed in Hong Kong in 1992 to tend house at the age of 14. She realized she was being ripped off after two years and sued her employer for back wages. She won the case and now heads Indonesia Group, a support organization for domestics. "I want to make sure no one else has to suffer," she says. It's people like Sunik who helped curtail the suffering of the Philippine maids. Their first job is to spread the word.