Officers from Labour, Immigration and
Police departments jointly raided three employment agencies on Nov 17 to
investigate cases of trafficking of Filipino domestic helpers to other
countries, and charging them excessive fees.
However, no arrests were made and a government statement said the raiding teams, which included
officers from the Anti-Organised Crime and Triad Bureau, merely
"inspected” the three agencies located in Tsimshatsui, Wanchai and
Kennedy Town.
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| Labour Department TV spot warning against job scams. |
Labor Attaché Jalilo dela Torre, who has
been waging a relentless campaign against recruiters luring their
Filipino victims to Russia, Turkey and other countries, welcomed the
Hong Kong government’s action.
“This is a welcome development, and
brings hope and relief to the thousands of victims now toiling in Russia
and Turkey, and other countries. I hope the HK authorities sustain the
campaign. Some legislative initiative to ban employment agencies from
recruiting and deploying to third-country destinations would strengthen
and institutionalize the drive against human traffickers,” Labatt Dela
Torre said in an online post.
He suggested Hong Kong lawmakers should
also clamp down on individual illegal recruiters, particularly a
Pakistani national he recently stopped from recruiting Filipino workers
to Russia.
“How about lone wolves, or individual
perpetrators, like Ahmed Sameer or Jon Meer –they have no agencies, no
brick and mortar presence, and yet they victimize more, thanks to
Facebook and Messenger, which are their communications and recruitment
platform of choice? How about it, LegCo?” Dela Torre said in his post.
Meer has been harassing the labor attache and his family members on Facebook recently as a result of his failed recruitment drive..
The raids came three days after Chief
Executive Carrie Lam promised to take “vigorous enforcement action”
against any employment agencies in Hong Kong that illegally deploy
helpers abroad.
Speaking on Nov 14 ahead of the weekly
Executive Council meeting, Lam said: “I, alongside the chief secretary
and the secretary for labour and welfare, are all very concerned about
the issue and have been consistently in touch with the Philippine
consul-general in Hong Kong.”
“I reiterate that (the government) will
take vigorous enforcement action against any agencies that conduct
illegal activities in Hong Kong, such as channeling the foreign domestic
helpers who are supposed to work in the city to other places.”
A police spokesperson has declined to name the three employment agencies raided.
“(The raids were) a joint operation of
the police, the Labour Department and Immigration Department. We have no
other details,” the spokesperson said.
A spokesman for the Labour Department did not give details of the raid, either.
"The government is committed to
safeguarding the rights and benefits of foreign domestic workers and
will not tolerate their exploitation in any form," the spokesman merely
said.
He added that the Labour Department had
been taking stringent enforcement actions to regulate agencies under the
Employment Ordinance, including the requirement to charge job-seekers
no more than 10% of their first month’s salary.
He said the department would take
follow-up actions against overcharging of fees upon receipt of
complaints from the helpers or referrals by the consulates in Hong Kong.
“At the same time, the cases will also be
referred to the police and Immigration for investigation in respect of
the suspected fraud and deception, and other illegal activities,” the
spokesman said.
