Update | Indonesian maid Erwiana was 'prisoner' in employer's home, father claims

Indonesian maid Erwiana Sulistyaningsih was forced to break contact with her family for six months and was barred from leaving her employers' flat, her parents have claimed.

Erwiana's father, Rohmad Saputro, spoke to the at the Amal Sehat Islamic Hospital in Sragen, East Java, where his 23-year-old daughter is receiving treatment.

Describing the steps that led to her virtual "imprisonment" in her employers' Tseung Kwan O flat, he said through a translator: "My daughter called me about one month into her stay in Hong Kong, telling me she had only four minutes to talk and that I must not call her back.

"She told us she wouldn't call again for six months, but that we shouldn't worry ... We later learned her employer was … forcing her to say those things."

Erwiana claims it was after this point that her employer, Lo Wan-tung, 44, began to hit her on a daily basis. The helper was allegedly locked in the flat whenever the family went out.

Lo also allegedly threatened to kill Erwiana's family members if she told of her treatment.