By Daisy CL Mandap
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| Speakers at the press briefing call for action to better protect women and migrants |
Sunday, Mar 5 will be a
very busy day in Hong Kong as various groups take to the streets to
mark International Women’s Day.
The events will kick off with the 10th anniversary celebration of One Billion Rising, a movement that aims to end violence against women and promote gender equality.
OBR groups comprised largely of women migrant workers will take to Chater Road in Central to stage the symbolic dance held annually around the world to push the movement’s causes.
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| PINDUTIN PARA SA DETALYE |
Coinciding with the OBR celebration is the “Care to Caregivers” offering of the Mission of Migrant Workers, which is holding the service festival for migrants for the first time since the pandemic swept across Hong Kong three years ago.
Several booths will be set up on Chater Road to provide free services to migrant workers, from massage therapy to a help desk for work-related concerns.
Indonesian migrant workers are also planning an online press conference with Erwiana and Kartika, their two compatriots who both managed to get their former employers jailed for abusing them, and also won substantial compensation for their suffering.
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| PINDUTIN PARA SA DETALYE |
Alongside these activities, about 100 people led by the Hong Kong Women Workers Association will march from Wanchai to the Central Government Offices in Admiralty starting at 11am to call for the protection of women and workers’ rights.
At a press conference held this afternoon at KUC Space in Jordan, the group’s executive director, Wu Mei-lin, said they have obtained a “verbal” permission from the police to go ahead with the march, the first such activity to be held in three years.
Wu, along with migrant leaders Shiela Bonifacio and Sringatin, and social worker Johannie Tong, called for women all over the world to unite and protect themselves against violence and oppression.
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Bonifacio, who chairs Gabriela Hong Kong, listed what she called the discriminatory and repressive policies against the mostly women migrant workers, like the 14-day rule for those whose contracts are prematurely terminated, and the lack of statutory regulations on their work hours.
She also said the mandatory live-in rule for domestic workers which has been in effect since 2003 has caused greater suffering for migrants, as they are forced to sleep in unsuitable places like the kitchen and even toilets, because of a lack of space in their employers' flats.
Sringatin, a spokesperson for the Asian Migrants Coordinating Body, hit out at the measly salary increases given to FDWs, and their being excluded from the financial assistance given to residents during the pandemic.
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| Pindutin para sa detalye! |
She also denounced what she said were false allegations of job-hopping among FDWs, who she said are forced to quit their jobs only in extreme cases like abuse.
Besides, she said
preventing FDWs from switching employers is discriminatory, as other foreign
workers in Hong Kong are not subjected to the same restriction.
Tong, who is the Mission’s community relations officer, spoke of the results of the study they conducted among 1,000 FDWs in late 2021, which showed the extreme effects of the coronavirus contagion on migrants.
She said that even before the fifth and most serious wave of the pandemic hit the city, 70% of migrant workers had reported suffering from heightened stress and anxiety, with 25% of them succumbing to depression.
At the same time, about 85% found themselves spending more of their salary, both for their upkeep in Hong Kong and for sending money back home.
Wu said the
discrimination and exclusion experienced by migrants is a reflection of the worsening
social problems in Hong Kong, brought about largely by the widening gap between
the rich and the poor.
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| PADALA NA! |
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