Exclusive | Swindled by Hong Kong agencies, Filipino helpers face debt, fear and broken dreams in Russia
One woman agreed to pay HK$43,000 with an annual interest fee of 12 per cent to a local agency, which is now hounding her family in Manila for the outstanding sum
A Filipino single mother of five who was once a domestic helper in Hong Kong, Nhie (not her real name) now works in Russia on a fake visa and is in constant fear of being deported.
In striving to pay off her debts, she has not seen her children for five years.
The 46-year-old is among more than 4,000 undocumented Filipinos currently working in Russia, with many having been tricked into going there from Hong Kong after paying local agencies thousands of dollars to find them better jobs.
Hong Kong, Singapore key centres of trafficking ring sending thousands of Filipino helpers to Russia
In an exclusive report on Wednesday, the Post quoted a senior Philippine official saying that Hong Kong was a top breeding ground for job recruitment fraud, with thousands of Filipino domestic helpers trafficked to countries such as Russia, Brazil and Turkey for bogus jobs.
Confirming this, Jalilo Dela Torre, labour attaché at the Philippine consulate in Hong Kong, said the city’s 189,000 Filipino domestic helpers were easy targets for unscrupulous local agents, who would pocket handsome fees on the pretext of helping the women achieve their aspirations of a better life.
“The trafficked helpers fall victim to the sweet talking and lies of the agencies,” Dela Torre said. “They later find out they are left jobless on their own in a foreign country and have to repay debts.”
