HK faces shortage of maids by 2017

MANILA, Philippines – Hong Kong faces a possible shortage of domestic helpers by 2017 as the Philippines and Indonesia, which supply most of the territory’s 300,000 helpers, seek to put in place policies to encourage their citizens to pursue skilled jobs at home instead of working as domestic helpers abroad.

The Philippine government is reportedly considering a plan to stop deploying domestic helpers abroad by 2017, but the country’s consulate in Hong Kong has denied this.

Philippine labor attaché in Hong Kong Manuel Roldan said the government is encouraging skilled Filipinos to work at home, or to seek skilled jobs abroad, rather than work as domestic helpers.

He also said the government does not intend to impose a ban on deployment of domestic helpers abroad.

Indonesia is currently drawing up its Domestic Worker Roadmap 2017, which targets “zero sending-out of domestic maids” by that year.

A small number of domestic helper agencies in Hong Kong have begun supplying clients with workers from mainland China, who reportedly get rates lower than the HK$3,800 prescribed salary for a foreign helper. Workers from China get only HK$3,000.

A spokesman for the Hong Kong Immigration Department, however, said the government has no plans to import domestic helpers from the Chinese mainland, saying that mainlanders caught working illegally as domestic helpers in Hong Kong will be arrested.