Biodun Iginla, BBC News

Biodun Iginla, BBC News
Showing posts with label hong kong maid abuse. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hong kong maid abuse. Show all posts

Thursday, February 26, 2015

Hong Kong woman jailed for abusing Indonesian maid

by Xian Wan and Biodun Iginla, BBC News, Hong Kong


A Hong Kong woman convicted of abusing her Indonesian maid has been jailed for six years.
Law Wan-tung was found guilty earlier this month of causing grievous bodily harm, criminal intimidation and failure to pay wages.
The maid, Erwiana Sulistyaningsih, drew global attention last year when she returned to Indonesia in need of hospital treatment.
During the trial, she described being beaten and starved by her employer.
The case drew intense scrutiny in Hong Kong, where a significant number of families rely on domestic helpers.
The city's residents employ about 300,000 maids from other parts of Asia, mainly Indonesia and the Philippines.

'Showed no compassion'

In addition to the jail sentence, Law, 44, was also fined HK$15,000 ($1,934; £1,253). She had faced a maximum sentence of seven years.
During the six-week trial the court heard that Law beat Ms Erwiana with various household objects and deprived her of proper food, allowing her only a small portion of rice and bread.
Law, a mother of two, only allowed Ms Erwiana to sleep four hours a night. On one occasion Law punched the maid so hard that her incisor teeth fractured.
Handing down the sentence, Judge Amanda Woodcock said Law "showed no compassion" to Ms Erwiana and other domestic staff.

Law saw them as "people that are beneath her", Judge Woodcock said and called for an investigation by authorities in Hong Kong and Indonesia into workers' conditions.

Public outrage

Twenty-four-year-old Ms Erwiana arrived in Hong Kong in 2013. She went home to her village in Central Java in January last year after working for Law for about eight months.
She came home beaten and bruised, too weak to walk and without any money. Doctors said the burns on her body were caused by boiling water.
The BBC's Karishma Vaswani says images of her battered body made headlines in Indonesia, leading to public outrage.
Her case has prompted the Indonesian government to look at better ways of protecting its migrant workers, she adds.

 

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Hong Kong woman found guilty of abusing Indonesian maid


by Xian Wan and Biodun Iginla, BBC News

Law Wan-tung, former employer of Indonesian domestic helper Erwiana Sulistyaningsih, leaves the district court in Hong Kong 8 January 2015 Law (pictured) abused Ms Erwiana over the course of eight months in 2013

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A Hong Kong woman has been found guilty of abusing an Indonesian maid in a high-profile case of mistreatment.
Law Wan-tung was accused of causing grievous bodily harm, criminal intimidation and failure to pay wages.
The maid, Erwiana Sulistyaningsih, drew global attention last year when she returned to Indonesia and needed hospital treatment.
She testified in court in December that she was abused by Law for several months before she was sent home.
The case drew intense scrutiny in Hong Kong, where a significant number of families rely on domestic helpers. The city's residents employ about 300,000 maids from other parts of Asia.
Law was found guilty of 18 out of 20 charges laid against her. The two charges she was not found guilty of related to her treatment of another maid.
She is due to be sentenced later this month.
Ms Erwiana told AFP news agency after the verdict that she was "very happy". She also got down on her knees and said a prayer of gratitude outside the court room.
Indonesian former maid Erwiana Sulistyaningsih (C) arrives at the court of justice in Hong Kong on 10 February 2015 Ms Erwiana had said in court that Law had tortured her
Indonesian domestic helper Erwiana Sulistyaningsih lies in a bed whilst being treated at a hospital in Sragen, Indonesia"s Central Java province, 17  January 2014 Her case brought the issue of maid abuse into the spotlight
During the trial the court heard that Law beat Ms Erwiana with various objects including a mop and a hanger - at one point knocking her unconscious - and deprived her of proper food.
At one point Law shoved a vacuum cleaner tube into Ms Erwiana's mouth and twisted it, injuring her lips; on another occasion Law punched the maid so hard that her incisor teeth fractured.
Ms Erwiana and her father told the South China Morning Post that when she returned home in January 2014, Ms Erwiana only weighed 25kg, half her usual weight. She had bruises all over her body.
Law's defence lawyers had accused Ms Erwiana of being "opportunistic" and argued she sustained her injuries because of her clumsiness.
Law denied all the abuse charges laid against her, but admitted to a separate charge of not buying insurance for Ms Erwiana.
The BBC's Alice Budisatrijo in Jakarta says the case has drawn attention in Indonesia because Hong Kong, which has laws to protect maids, is seen as relatively safe for Indonesian domestic workers compared to other countries.
A group of protesters gather outside the courthouse in support of Indonesian former maid Erwiana Sulistyaningsih in Hong Kong on 10 February 2015. Ms Erwiana has drawn support from migrant workers and a number of them showed up at the court on Tuesday
Photographs of Ms Erwiana looking emaciated and sickly in an Indonesian hospital last year caused outrage in her home country, while the case also triggered protests by migrant workers in Hong Kong.
Ms Erwiana was named one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people last year.
Amnesty International in 2013 published a report alleging that maids were being abused and exploited in Hong Kong, and called on the city's government to resolve the issue.
The human rights group said on Tuesday that the guilty verdict for Law was a "wake-up call" for the government to stop exploitation and a "damning indictment".
"The Hong Kong authorities can no longer bury their heads in the sand and dismiss horrific abuses as isolated incidents. Concrete action to end laws and regulations that foster such horrific abuse is long overdue," said the group's Asia Pacific migrant rights researcher Norma Kang Muico.

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