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Opinion | Why Indonesia and Hong Kong must resolve issues faced by domestic workers
- News of hardships by domestic workers in the Chinese city dominates coverage of Hong Kong’s ties with Indonesia, which span trade, investment and tourism
- The case of Yuli Riswati, who was deported for overstaying her visa, has also sparked concern
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News about the 165,000 Indonesian domestic workers in Hong Kong dominates coverage of the relationship between the city and the Southeast Asian nation. These stories are often focused on the hardships endured by domestic workers from Indonesia, who work long hours for extremely low wages. While the two governments have worked to improve the situation, such reports continue to overshadow the continued expansion of their political, cultural and business ties.
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More controversy erupted last week when Yuli Riswati, a domestic worker who covered the Hong Kong protests as a citizen journalist, was deported after being arrested for overstaying her visa. Her supporters accused the government of sending her home for her work on Migran Pos, an Indonesian online news portal she launched in March.
Indonesian news site Republik Merdeka reported that Yuli had tried several times to renew her visa, only to have her requests turned down by the authorities.
Besides covering social unrest in the city for the not-for-profit news site, Yuli also wrote about the treatment of domestic workers in Hong Kong. To protest against her arrest, supporters demonstrated at the Immigration Tower in Wan Chai with banners and posters demanding her release and asking Hong Kong to stop persecuting migrants.
Yuli’s case sparked concern when it was covered by local media in Indonesia, where it is believed to have furthered a negative perception regarding Hong Kong as a work destination. According to a 2017 BBC Indonesia report, of around 300 cases of sexual and physical violence reported in the city yearly, 50 per cent of the victims were Indonesian workers.
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There are far too many such cases reported. In January 2014, Erwiana Sulistyaningsih accused her employer of physically abusing her for six months, sparking public outrage after photographs of her injuries spread on social media.
Her employer was sentenced to six years in jail in 2015, but was released after serving half her sentence. Indonesian media also reported the case of Tri Wahyuni, who was speaking to a friend on Facebook Live last year when she was threatened and physically assaulted by her employer.
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