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| Migrant leaders say there should be no discrimination in the fight against Covid-19 |
This was what three of the biggest migrant workers’ groups
said when they unveiled a study today, Mar 16, showing that up to 14% of all
foreign domestic workers do not receive protective materials from their
employers, such as face masks and sanitizers.
In actual numbers, says Eman Villanueva, spokesperson of the
International Migrants Alliance, this means up to 55,000 MDWs do not get such
protective materials from their employers.
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The study, jointly conducted by IMA, Asian Migrants
Coordinating Body and the Mission for Migrant Workers, also showed 20% (or 81,3000)
MDWs are at risk of contracting Covid-19
because they are not given a mask each day.
A further 40% (125,383) MDWs get only one mask each day,
also exposing them to the risk of catching the disease, given that masks are supposed
to provide protection for only 8 hours at most.
Speaking at a press conference held at KUC Space in Jordan
“In order to effectively fight Covid-19 we should be
thinking of protecting everyone, no one should be left out,” he said.
“The whole community should foster solidarity in confronting
Covid-19. If we leave one sector behind, we are opening up our (entire) society
to the problem of Covid-19 infection.”
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| 40% of FDWs did not go out for an entire month, according to the survey |
The study also showed that a staggering 40% (200,000) of the
MDWs did not go out for an entire month due to the outbreak. However, these
included those who decided on their own to stay put, out of fear of being
infected.
Still, about 10% of them, or 40,000, were not given a
choice, as they were expressly forbidden from leaving the house for the entire
month. Nearly twice as many (78,000) were not allowed to take their weekly rest
day.
There were other contract violations reported to the Mission
These included a female migrant worker being forced to share
a room with her male employer who had to undergo self-quarantine after coming
in from the mainland.
The employer’s wife and daughter reportedly feared catching
the virus, so they stayed together in another room.
In another case, a migrant worker who developed a fever was told
to stay in a room where she was given food and water, but was not taken to a
doctor at all. Luckily, she got well after a few days.
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The survey also showed another indirect abuse being
committed against migrant workers by employers who have a deathly fear of the
virus.
About 80% of those surveyed said they do more cleaning, with
at least a third saying they are told to clean the house at least twice a day.
Two out of 10 (around 80,000) are not provided protective
equipment like gloves or masks when handling harmful cleaning agents such as
bleach and disinfectants.
Tong said Hong Kong people should think of the “contribution
and sacrifices” made by migrant workers in coming to Hong
Kong to realize why they need to be protected amid the pandemic.
AMCB’s Sringatin, on the other hand, said migrant workers
themselves do not want to get infected, so they do their own way of protecting
themselves by buying their own masks or securing them from other sources.
She said the Indonesian consulate has already distributed
100,000 face masks in their community, but migrant organizations are still
looking for private donors, considering that the contagion is likely to
continue for at least another month.
Villanueva said the Philippine consulate had also promised
to distribute the same number of masks to members of the Filipino community,
but apparently ran into “procurement problems.”
Nevertheless, he said some private donors coursed their mask
donations to the Consulate, and his own group managed to get 2,000 pieces,
which it distributed to members.
But while the consulates and employers both have a
responsibility to help ensure migrant workers are able to protect themselves
from the virus, Villanueva said it is the Hong Kong
government which should carry the biggest burden.
By telling the people in Hong Kong
to buy masks and other protective gear, he said the government is telling them
“to confront Covid-10 on their own.”
This is so unlike the governments in other affected areas
which have made it their responsibility to ensure their citizens are
well-equipped and protected against the diseases.
He also cited as an example the massive testing done by the
South Korean government to know the extent of the infection within the country.
He said that out of more than 22,000 people tested, more than 7,000 were found
to be infected.
“Yes, they got a scary number…but it’s good to know what we
are facing,” he said.
In contrast, he said the Hong Kong
government is not doing enough testing so people are kept in the dark as to the
real threat posed by the virus to the city.
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| Villanueva, Sringatin and Tong: 'Everybody loses if the migrants are not protected' |
Apart from including MDWs in the city’s safety and
protection programs, the groups also want the Hong Kong
government to:
- include migrant workers in the financial assistance scheme recently unveiled to address the fallout from the outbreak;
- conduct information campaign among households employing MDWs on their responsibilities, including the provision of protective materials
- ensure MDWs are given correct information about Covid-19
- curb overpricing of masks and protective materials, and ensure adequate supply for all;
- withdraw the Labour Department’s advise for MDWs to stay at their workplace during their rest day
- abolish other discriminatory restrictions like the two-week rule and the live-in policy which make MDWs more susceptible to abuse.
The survey was conducted online between Mar 8 and 10. O the
1,127 respondents, 54% were Filipinos, 44 were Indonesians,, 0.18 were Thais,
and 0.09 were Sri Lankans.
Villanueva said the original plan was to conduct a face-to-face
survey, but this was aborted when the organizers realized they would leave out a
significant number of MDWs, the ones who have not been going out on their rest
days.
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