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| AMCB held silent online protests across HK against the call by Quat and Ngan |
One of them, Elizabeth Quat, was singled out for her
“racist” remark about FDWs not matching “their product descriptions.”
The other, Frankie Ngan, was slammed for likening
the hiring of FDWs to arranged marriages, where “it’s just the luck of the
draw, no guarantee.”
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Their remarks, along with several other statements
that put the blame for early termination on workers, were made during a
Legislative Council session last Wednesday.
Members of the Asian Migrants Coordinating Body
quickly lambasted the two, calling their statements “shameless and repulsive.”
“Such a primitive mindset is highly condemnable and
unacceptable in these modern times, said AMCB chair Dolores Balladares in a
statement.
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She said Quat should be ashamed of herself for what
she had said.
“We are workers and human beings, not products or
commodities that are consumable and ..disposable,” Balladares added.
Nang’s call to halve the 14 days that terminated
workers are allowed to stay in Hong Kong was also roundly dismissed by AMCB,
which said that even the government’s 14-day policy is considered
discriminatory by the United Nations and global human rights organizations.
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Apart from curtailing the stay of FDWs who have lost
their jobs, the DAB lawmaker also wants a permanent ban on all those who leave
their employers prematurely as he believes they just want to move to employers
who can give them an easier time .
Ngan also called for mandatory medical checks on all
FDWs who arrive in Hong Kong, saying there had been instances where the worker
was found to have stage 3 to 4 cancer or was pregnant.
Employers of such helpers should be able to cut them
off without paying anything, he said.
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The lawmakers’ call for tightening the screws on
FDWs was just a follow-up to DAB’s controversial list of proposals unveiled in
September last year that called for harsh penalties for terminated workers.
The group called for employers to be compensated, even
if they were the ones who terminated the contract with their helpers. They also
want a two-year ban on all FDWs who have gone home without finishing their
contract.
In a motion he proposed to fellow legislators, Ngan
also urged the government enact rules that will limit the amount of money that
a FDW can borrow to no more than twice her monthly salary, for each year of her
stay.
He said excessive borrowings by domestic helpers often lead to problems for their employers and their families.
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Secretary for Labour Chris Sun who was also at the
Legco meeting, said job-hopping became prevalent during the time of the
pandemic, when repeated travel bans and other restrictions forced Immigration
to relax its policies towards FDWs.
But the authorities are now back to cracking down on
job hoppers, he said, with 2,833 visa applications from FDWs suspected of
engaging in the practice being turned down in 2021.
This, he said, was nine times more than what was
recorded in 2020.
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