 |
| Filipinos account for 55% of the total foreign domestic helper population in Hong Kong |
Hong Kong attracted 8,176 more domestic helpers from the
Philippines for the whole of last year, lifting their total number to 219,073 by
the end of last December.
This accounted for nearly 55% of Hong Kong's total foreign
domestic helper population of 399,320 by the year’s end.
Immigration figure also show that the number of Indonesian
domestic helpers, the second biggest ethnic group, also rose by about 5,000, to
a total figure of 170,828.
The increase in arrivals of Filipino helpers was recorded
despite a big number being dismissed by employers or breaking their contracts
for various reasons, a welfare officer at the Philippine Overseas Labor Office
has said.
Marivic C. Clarin said that she personally handled more than
2,000 contract terminations or non-renewals from June to December last year.
She said 700 or about a third of these cases were initiated by
workers, 324 of whom broke their contracts while the rest did not renew
contracts. Two-thirds were done by employers, of whom 45% cited severance as
the reason, while 55% were performance-related.
In the severance cases, the reasons cited for the redundancy
were: the employer died or relocated; there was no more need for the helper as
her ward had grown up; and financial reasons like job loss.
 |
| Call now! |
But technically, she said these should not be considered as
terminations because the workers didn’t have to go back home to re-apply for
jobs through agencies but were allowed to stay in Hong Kong to process new work
contracts.
Foreign Domestic Helpers
Population in Hong Kong
As at the end of Month/Year
|
Other nationalities
|
Total number for all nationalities
|
|||
Dec 2018
|
210,897
|
165,907
|
4,502
|
4,769
|
386,075
|
Dec 2019
|
219,073
|
170,828
|
4,771
|
4,648
|
399,320
|
