By Daisy CL Mandap
 |
| Speakers at the press briefing call for action to better protect women and migrants |
Sunday, Mar 5 will be a
very busy day in Hong Kong as various groups take to the streets to
mark International Women’s Day.
The events will kick off
with the 10th anniversary celebration of One Billion Rising, a
movement that aims to end violence against women and promote gender equality.
OBR groups comprised largely
of women migrant workers will take to Chater Road in Central to stage the
symbolic dance held annually around the world to push the movement’s causes.
Coinciding with the OBR
celebration is the “Care to Caregivers” offering of the Mission of Migrant Workers,
which is holding the service festival for migrants for the first time since the pandemic swept across Hong Kong three years ago.
Several booths will be
set up on Chater Road to provide free services to migrant workers, from massage
therapy to a help desk for work-related
concerns.
Indonesian migrant
workers are also planning an online press conference with Erwiana and Kartika,
their two compatriots who both managed to get their former employers jailed for
abusing them, and also won substantial compensation for their suffering.
Alongside these
activities, about 100 people led by the Hong Kong Women Workers Association
will march from Wanchai to the Central Government Offices in Admiralty starting
at 11am to call for the protection of women and workers’ rights.
At a press conference
held this afternoon at KUC Space in Jordan, the group’s executive director, Wu
Mei-lin, said they have obtained a “verbal” permission from the police to go ahead
with the march, the first such activity to be held in three years.
Wu, along with migrant
leaders Shiela Bonifacio and Sringatin, and social worker Johannie Tong, called for women all over the
world to unite and protect themselves against violence and oppression.
Bonifacio, who chairs Gabriela
Hong Kong, listed what she called the discriminatory and repressive policies against
the mostly women migrant workers, like the 14-day rule for those whose contracts
are prematurely terminated, and the lack of statutory regulations on their work
hours.
She also said the
mandatory live-in rule for domestic workers which has been in effect since 2003
has caused greater suffering for migrants, as they are forced to sleep in
unsuitable places like the kitchen and even toilets, because of a lack of space in their employers' flats.
Sringatin, a spokesperson
for the Asian Migrants Coordinating Body, hit out at the measly salary increases
given to FDWs, and their being excluded from the financial assistance given to
residents during the pandemic.
She also denounced what
she said were false allegations of job-hopping among FDWs, who she said are
forced to quit their jobs only in extreme cases like abuse.
Besides, she said
preventing FDWs from switching employers is discriminatory, as other foreign
workers in Hong Kong are not subjected to the same restriction.
Tong, who is the Mission’s
community relations officer, spoke of the results of the study they conducted
among 1,000 FDWs in late 2021, which showed the extreme effects of the coronavirus contagion on migrants.
She said that even
before the fifth and most serious wave of the pandemic hit the city, 70% of
migrant workers had reported suffering from heightened stress and anxiety, with 25%
of them succumbing to depression.
At the same time, about
85% found themselves spending more of their salary, both for their upkeep in
Hong Kong and for sending money back home.
Wu said the
discrimination and exclusion experienced by migrants is a reflection of the worsening
social problems in Hong Kong, brought about largely by the widening gap between
the rich and the poor.
