HK maids suffer twice as Covid-19 turns the screws - Asia Times
▻https://asiatimes.com/2020/08/hk-maids-suffer-twice-as-covid-19-turns-the-screws
Activists have urged the Hong Kong government to provide better facilities for domestic workers to stay in while they are searching for new jobs or spending their rest days amid the epidemic. The environment of dormitories provided by employment agencies to job-seeking domestic workers was horrible, said Shek Pui-yin, an organiser with the Hong Kong Federation of Asian Domestic Workers Unions. Twenty to 30 people were staying together in a 300-square-feet (29 square meter) apartment while some apartments had no air-conditioning. Even without the Covid-19 epidemic, it was inhuman and unhygienic to let domestic workers stay in such dormitories, Shek said. The Labor Department should regulate these facilities under the Employment Ordinance, Building Ordinance and Fire Services Ordinance, she said, adding that these overcrowded dormitories would threaten public health if many domestic workers were infected with the coronavirus there.
Shek’s comments came after a dozen Indonesian domestic workers who had stayed in boarding houses since last month tested positive
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