Puja Kapai in the News (SCMP)

"'The future of Hong Kong is not ours': Minority groups feel shut out of one of Asia's richest cities"

R Blundy & C Leung
South China Morning Post
19 November 2016

Lifelong Hongkonger Prem Chandr Tamang was shocked to watch television footage of police firing shots at a Nepali gang attacking another Nepali in Yau Ma Tei on October 2 this year.

     The 44-year-old Nepali company director, whose engineering construction business is based just two blocks away from where the machete attack took place, has also been a victim of Nepali gangs in the last two years.

     On one occasion, they broke into his office, demanded he hand over HK$100,000 and slashed his neck – an injury that left him struggling to eat for 14 months. In a separate terrifying attack in March this year, they cornered him at home, hitting him across the head as he tried to protect his one-year-old son...

     Puja Kapai, director of the Centre for Comparative and Public Law at the University of Hong Kong, said the neglect of Nepalis and Pakistanis needed to be urgently addressed by the government.

     “It is very sad,” she said. “Young men and women are being recruited into these gangs because they are being exploited by the sense of loss within their community. They are being lost to the other side.”.. Click here to read the full article.

"Window-cleaning ban for Hong Kong's domestic helpers will not keep them safe, campaigners say"

Rachel Blundy

South China Morning Post

19 November 2016

A recent ban on cleaning high-rise windows is not sufficient to protect Hong Kong’s domestic workers from exploitation, campaigners argue after a shocking photograph recently emerged of a helper cleaning a window at a 15th-floor apartment in the Mid-Levels.

     The government this week revealed details of a new clause to be added to all domestic helper employment contracts, prohibiting them from cleaning external windows above the ground floor unless the window is fitted with a secure grille.

     The ban, proposed by the Philippines Consulate, was initially delayed for one month to allow Hong Kong lawmakers more time to establish the specific wording of the new clause...

     Puja Kapai, director of the Centre for Comparative and Public Law at the University of Hong Kong, agreed that the ban did not properly address the lack of restrictions on a domestic helper’s duties and working hours. “It is a band-aid approach,” she said... Click here to read the full article.

"Hong Kong's lack of rehabilitation services leave minority drug addicts with nowhere to turn"

L Chan & S Cheah

South China Morning Post

19 November 2016

Thapa was only 16 when he first started abusing ‘brown sugar’ - an adulterated form of heroin - in Nepal.

     He came to Hong Kong in 2004 to reunite with family, but pressured by peers and feeling disenfranchised by his experience as a member of an ethnic minority in the city, Thapa turned to heroin. He was only 18.

     “Before, I had no meaning to my life,” he said. Thapa’s story is not unique in the Nepalese community. Drug abuse among ethnic minorities in the city has been on the rise since 2005.

     Statistics show drug use has risen from 1.4 per cent to 3.6 per cent in the Nepalese community, compared to a rise from 0.4 per cent for other South Asians to 2.6 per cent in this year’s first quarter...

     The South Asian population is predominantly Buddhist, Hindu

or Muslim; yet nearly all of the city’s rehab services are Christian-based.

     This means religion is a “first-stage barrier” that ethnic minorities face when seeking treatment, according to Puja Kapai, law professor at Hong Kong University, who has published extensive research on the status of ethnic minorities in Hong Kong... Click here to read the full article.

"Hong Kong charity reaches out to ethnic minorities who face barriers to health care"

Rachel Blundy

South China Morning Post

22 November 2016

Ethnic minorities in Hong Kong are increasingly developing preventable chronic health problems but face significant barriers to accessing health care, a charity has warned.

      South Asians in particular are facing rising levels of diabetes, obesity and heart conditions, partly because of their traditionally high-fat diets, according to Health in Action.

      The humanitarian organisation will receive almost HK$930,000 from Operation Santa Claus, the annual fundraiser organised by the South China Morning Post and RTHK, for a new health care programme targeted at ethnic minorities...

     The government has previously been criticised for failing to support ethnic minorities seeking health care.

      Writing in her 2015 research paper Status of Ethnic Minorities in Hong Kong 1997-2014, Puja Kapai, director of the Centre for Comparative and Public Law at the University of Kong Kong, said the “language barrier” was the primary hurdle faced by ethnic minorities.

      “Whilst the population of ethnic minorities continues to grow in Hong Kong, the government has paid insufficient attention to the problems faced by ethnic minorities in terms of equal accessibility to health care services,” she wrote... Click here to read the full article.

Puja Kapai Interview on the Problems with Domestic Helper Contracts in Hong Kong (SCMP)

"'Cursory' contracts leave Hong Kong's foreign domestic helpers open to abuse"

Rachel Blundy

South China Morning Post

29 October 2016

Domestic helpers in Hong Kong continue to be at risk of abuse from their employers because their “cursory” employment contracts offer limited protection leaving them open to exploitation, a legal expert says.

     Migrant worker welfare groups have long called for better job safety guidelines for the city’s 320,000 foreign domestic helpers.

     But these calls have seemingly been met with resistance by the Hong Kong government. This month lawmakers asked to delay a ban proposed by the Philippine consulate on domestic helpers cleaning external windows, after several fell from window ledges, sometimes fatally.

     Secretary for Labour and Welfare Matthew Cheung Kin-chung said more time was needed to draft the new measures, which are due to be reassessed in mid-November.

     Puja Kapai, director of the Centre for Comparative and Public Law and associate law professor at the University of Hong Kong, said the employment contract still failed to stipulate maximum working hours and the extent of a helper’s duties.

     A report by Amnesty International in 2013 found that domestic helpers worked an average of 17 hours per day, but some were “on call” 24 hours a day because of the compulsory live-in rule.

     Kapai described the contract as “cursory” and said it offered limited protection for the employee.

     “The idea that a helper should be expected to be at the beck and call of an employer at any time of day is outrageous,” she said. “[The contract] is not a good mechanism to allow the helper to assess the extent of the burden she faces.”... Click here to read the full article.

Kelley Loper Comments on the Treatment of Domestic Helpers in Hong Kong (HKEJ)

"Why domestic workers should be allowed to live out"
Manvel Keshishyan
Hong Kong Economic Journal
12 May 2016

Alisha stands apart from the other domestic helpers enjoying a Sunday afternoon in the park. She says she has been in Hong Kong for a few months and has not made many friends. She continually slides her thumb across the phone screen to check whether her sister is online so she can see her 17-month-old son back home in the Philippines.

     ”My sister takes care of my son. If I have free time, I immediately call him,” she says. “My biggest concern is when I go back home, my son will not recognize me and it hurts.”  Alisha, 40, wants to be known only by her first name.

     She must return to her employers’ home by 8:30 p.m. to make dinner and do chores until midnight. The normal workday lasts 17 hours made longer by the rude attitude of her employers.

     The grandmother is the hardest on her. “She is always telling me I am lazy, I am useless, and when it finally hurts me and I can’t keep my temper I say ‘tell this to your daughter and let me go home,’ I don’t care, I don’t want to come back to Hong Kong again,” Alisha says.

     Alisha’s plight is familiar to Hongkongers...

     Julie Ham, associate professor of criminology in the University of Hong Kong, supports efforts to terminate the ”live-in” requirement. Ham thinks scrapping the arrangement would give “greater flexibility and greater choice to both workers and employers”.

     Ham says domestic worker rights organizations should be involved in the process. ”Domestic workers and their activist networks have a keen sense of the most urgent changes that are required. It is crucial for them to be involved in any discussions about regulation,” Ham says.

     Kelley Loper, director of the human rights program in the faculty of law of the University of Hong Kong, thinks that domestic helpers’ working hours should be limited. Loper adds that living with the employer can increase opportunities of ”exploitation, sub-standard working and living conditions”.

     ”International human rights bodies have repeatedly called on the Hong Kong government to change their policies in this regard. If Hong Kong agreed to establish an independent human rights commission, it could take up this issue,” Loper says... Click here to read the full article.

Farzana Aslam on Domestic Helpers' Day Off (SCMP)

"Up to domestic helpers themselves to decide how to spend their day off in Hong Kong"

Farzana Aslam

South China Morning Post

21 November 2015

Three letters have been published recently on the subject of where and how migrant domestic workers spend their days off.

     The tone that has been used throughout this series of letters is polarising, patronizing, and problematic. The latest has the letter writer suggesting that the Hong Kong government provide training courses in community centres or city halls. The rationale being: "This will prevent them from mixing with the wrong company, which most of Hong Kong employers are afraid of…"

     The writer goes on to argue, "nowadays it is not uncommon for maids to have to look after family members with certain health conditions, such as Alzheimer's disease … In such cases, professional training courses can be offered to the helpers, who often have no experience in looking after people with such conditions. Wouldn't this be a more meaningful way for helpers to spend their days off, rather than mingling with other helpers?"

     Really? Yes, there are many migrant domestic workers who choose to congregate in Central and other urban areas on their day off. But, then again, there are many Hong Kong residents who also choose to spend their day off in Central and other densely populated areas of the city.  Click here to read the full article.