On Sundays Hong Kong’s migrant domestic workers traditionally gather in their thousands in the city’s public spaces to enjoy their day off.
Congregating in shopping malls and parks or at bus stations, they take mats to sit on and crowd around rice cookers, sharing meals. “Mini villages pop up everywhere,” says Karen Grépin, associate professor at the University of Hong Kong.
But for months these gatherings have not happened. Instead, the city’s estimated 400,000 domestic workers have been cooped up in their employers’ homes after the government issued a statement placing restrictions on their rest day to prevent the spread of Covid-19. This month, it issued a further notice announcing the fine for breaching social distancing rules was to double.
Most of the migrant workforce, known as “helpers”, are women from the Philippines and Indonesia, who arrive on special visas requiring them to live in the homes of their employers – mainly Chinese or expatriate families.
Existing inequalities have been amplified by Covid-19, leaving scores of workers struggling to cope with the double burden presented by the pandemic, researchers have found.
“The Philippines and Indonesia have been hit hard by Covid-19 with huge consequences for these workers,” says Grépin, who has been assessing the impact of the pandemic on them with other academics.
“They are dealing with their own financial insecurity, coupled with the increased demand for money from their families back home, who have struggled to get food or find work during lockdown,” she says.
Now experts warn that this marginalised group is facing a mental health crisis, with many forced to quit their jobs due to intolerable working conditions.
Domestic workers are often the main breadwinner in their families and many have young children they haven’t seen for long periods due to travel restrictions.
Meanwhile, the demands of their job have increased, as Hong Kong families spend more time at home.
“Employers working from home and children out of school has meant extra meals need to be cooked,” says Grépin. “People have gone into overdrive on the sanitation front – they want their shoes disinfected and the drains cleaned – all this falls to the domestic worker.”
Stressed employers have been taking out their anxiety on their staff, says Lynn, a 47-year-old Filipino worker who sends all her earnings home so her three children can attend private school. She has been a helper for 12 years, since her youngest child was three, and has not seen her family since July 2019.
“The quarantine measures mean I wouldn’t have enough vacation days to visit them,” she says. “It’s a big sacrifice and we can only talk to our kids on the phone, which is really hard.”
Lynn, who says she has a compassionate employer, volunteers at a health centre that has been inundated with domestic workers suffering from stress. “Many have depression, they come here crying and I offer counselling,” she says.
Some have been abandoned by their employers who have moved back to China or can no longer afford them; others are in debt or have been mistreated. “They are waking at 5am, working all day, cooking three meals, looking after children, going to bed at 1am,” says Lynn.
Space comes at a premium in Hong Kong and while some apartments have helpers’ quarters, not all workers have access to a private area.
Cynthia Tellez of Mission for Migrant Workers, which runs a hotline to support domestic workers affected by the pandemic, says: “Many are sleeping in unsuitable conditions such as in stock cupboards, on top of refrigerators, or even on toilet floors.”
Tellez, who has supported 270 domestic workers with their cases since June, says: “They will say ‘if it is my day off where am I to stand? I don’t know where to go as I’m not allowed to sit on the sofa’.”
Some are on call around the clock and have not had a day off for up to seven months, says Tellez, who has been advising women on their employment rights. In the past fortnight she has spoken to nine women who have quit their positions despite not having another job.
The curtailment of domestic workers’ freedoms followed a statement from the government advising employers not to give “helpers” their day off for fear of spreading the virus.
“It is not an actual policy, but was taken by many as an official directive and has had a huge impact on the welfare of helpers,” says Tellez.
Clare Wenham of the London School of Economics is part of the international team who have worked on the research, part of a wider study on gender and Covid-19.
She says: “The Hong Kong government has taken decisive action to restrict disease transmission, and should be commended for this from a public health perspective. But it has not recognised the secondary effects of such restrictions on different sectors of society, particularly the most marginalised.”
Researchers carried out in-depth interviews with a dozen domestic workers aged 25–60. Many reported that their employers had double standards regarding the spread of infection, with some banning days off while still socialising or having parties at home.
Most participants complained about being stigmatised due to misplaced claims they are carriers of the virus. Those who arrived during the summer to take up posts for the first time were required to quarantine but, says Grépin, their new employers did not want them self-isolating in their apartments.
As a result, these new helpers stayed in boarding houses, sometimes run by helper agencies and the cramped conditions led to outbreaks of Covid-19.
The government eventually accommodated them in inexpensive hotels but they remain stigmatised as carriers of the disease above other groups, even though the transmission rate among helpers is unclear.
Sheila Bonifacio is chair of Gabriella Hong Kong, an alliance that raises awareness of the rights of the city’s Filipino migrant workers.
During her 13 years as a helper she has experienced physical, verbal and mental abuse, although she now has an employer who treats her well and allows her time off for her volunteer work, running a mobile counselling service.
“During this pandemic we are frontline workers doing everything for the families – the least we expect is that Hong Kong families also look after our needs,” she says.
Yet an online survey conducted by Gabriella this year found that half of helpers were not getting basic assistance from employers, with some failing to provide face masks and gloves.
“The pandemic has brought into sharp focus existing inequalities,” says Bonifacio, who points out that unlike other workers, helpers have received no financial aid as a result of Covid-19.
Furthermore, the government announced the city’s helpers would not receive a pay rise over the next year.
“We are workers, we are not slaves. There should be no exclusion in terms of benefits and workers’ rights, yet we are treated differently,” says Bonifacio.
Employers have also been facing financial pressures, said the Hong Kong Employers of Overseas Domestic Helpers Association. It said at least half of its 1,000 members were furloughed and could no longer afford to hire domestic workers.
Last month the government issued a statement saying employers should not dismiss helpers who contract Covid-19 and that if they work on Sundays they should ensure they get their time off later.