When we think of Hong Kong, the image that floats in our minds are often the towering buildings and beautiful cityscapes. But hidden in the corners of the city and burdened by the way of life, are the harsh reality of domestic workers. A viral video recently revealed how these workers spend their only day off, assembling makeshift cardboard shelters in public spaces, because on Sundays, many are not permitted to remain in the homes of elites who they serve regularly.
Workers from around the city of Hong Kong and even from abroad like the Philippines and Indonesia, come to the main bustling streets to find employment. Many of these migrants take on roles as domestic helpers, supporting households of the city’s elites.
Now as per the law of the land, migrant workers from different nations can’t own their own homes. There’s something called the ‘live-in’ rule where the workers have to stay at their employer’s house or the place they are working at.
However, on their weekly offs, mostly on Sundays, these workers are forced to spend time in public places away from the household. However, most of them, tired from the week’s work, often prefer to lay down and chill. So, they put up makeshift homes with cardboard boxes on bridges and sides of roads.
This scene was recently captured in a video and the clip instantly went viral with people criticizing the work scenario in the country. The videographer, Rapha calls this “The Invisible Labor Crisis”, adding, “Hong Kong runs on labor it refuses to house.”
Explaining further, Rapha wrote, “Every Sunday, thousands of women from the Philippines and Indonesia are forced out of the luxury apartments. On their only day off, they are effectively homeless for the day. They congregate on bridges and in underpasses, building makeshift "rooms" out of cardboard boxes just to find a shred of privacy from the eyes of a city that depends on them.”
The video has now garnered around 3.7 million views with divided notions. One user wrote, “Sad reality for domestic helpers in Hong Kong.. When we were living there, it was very hard for my Filipino mum to see when she visited us.”
However, contradicting this, one user who seems to be an employer wrote, “False!!!! This is so untrue. I often told my helper she could bring her friends to our house on her day off, but she preferred meeting them this way and hanging out with all her friends. Strop spreading lies....”
Reality or false narrative the traveller’s end note truly stirred up several emotions: “how can we call this a modern superpower when this is how the women who raise the children are treated?”
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