There are currently about 178,000 Filipino overseas domestic workers living in Hong Kong. In addition, there are a slightly smaller number of Indonesian workers with a total population of approximately 337,000 overseas domestic workers in all. This App then has been designed expressly for the individuals who make up Hong Kong’s biggest minority population.
It is intended to provide them with practical and useful information about both their rights, and responsibilities under the law. But in addition, the author has also intended the book for a wider readership as well. This App can also be useful for anyone who knows or employs an overseas domestic worker, or anyone who is involved in advocacy work. Given the nature of this App, it can easily be disseminated to users around the world.
It is a primary goal of this App that potential cases of human trafficking can be avoided, and that modern-day slavery will soon be a thing of the past. As such, it is also hoped that anyone who is considering a job as a domestic worker can inform him/herself about the reality that they will face when they arrive in Hong Kong so that they can be equipped to avoid the many sources of exploitation that they face.
This comprehensively revised, updated and much expanded edition of Take your Rights Seriously (which was first published by the Hong Kong Human Rights Monitor in 1994) is intended to convey both to overseas domestic workers and the public at large, some of the economic, legal and administrative inequities that are unique to Hong Kong’s migrant workers. Its underlying message proclaims the urgency for a wider and more inclusive degree of social justice – one in which upon reflection recognizes that Hong Kong society (as indeed any society) is best judged by the way in which it treats its most vulnerable members.