Sick domestic workers left homeless and jobless in Hong Kong after catching Covid-19, highlights a deeper problem
- Dozens of domestic workers who tested positive for Covid-19 have been left homeless and many say they’ve faced other forms of discrimination and abuse
- Advocates say the recent crisis highlights the need to revise the rule forcing domestic workers to live in the same house as their Hong Kong employer
When Josephine*, a 54-year-old domestic worker from the Philippines, began to have a sore throat, she feared it was Covid-19. It was at the time when Hong Kong was going through the most serious wave of the pandemic and hospitals were running out of beds.
She was right. After testing positive for the virus, she was given “cold, cough and fever” medicine by medical staff who told her to stay home.
But instead of sleeping in her bed, Josephine’s employers made her take a mattress to their building’s dirty stairs, rarely used by residents. She was not able to rest properly. “It was very cold because it was very open,” the single mother-of-two said.
There was no running water and, banned from using her bosses’ bathroom, she had to go out to use a public toilet. “I didn’t want to do that because I had the virus, but I had no option,” said Josephine, who could not have a shower for seven days.
She was shocked about being left outside the house while she was ill. “I felt that nobody could help me, I cried a lot.”
Josephine told a relative what was happening and about a week later was rescued by charity workers, who took her to a shelter.
