Indonesian domestic helper Susan always avoided rolling around at night because she worried that even a slight twitch could wake up other residents sleeping shoulder to shoulder by her side in a jam-packed room.Susan (not her real name) was staying in one of the estimated hundreds of boarding houses
Indonesian domestic helper Susan always avoided rolling around at night because she worried that even a slight twitch could wake up other residents sleeping shoulder to shoulder by her side in a jam-packed room.
However, the guest houses’ cramped living environments, the need to share common amenities and their high turnover rate appear to have made them especially susceptible to coronavirus transmission. It was fortunate the virus did not hit where Susan had stayed – she spent three weeks with at least 14 others crammed into a tiny flat in Sai Wan Ho where they could barely move.
The living room, Susan said, also doubled as the bedroom of 11 of the helpers, who bunked together on thin mattresses. Four others stayed together in an even smaller room equipped with two bunk beds. But on August 5, health authorities began a shift in strategy after the first helper linked to temporary accommodation tested positive. In the fortnight prior to her diagnosis, she had stayed in three different premises and come into contact with at least 45 other helpers.
Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam calls for public support over free Covid-19 testsAs the number of cases linked to boarding houses continued to rise, the Labour Department began distributing testing kits, but in a statement to the Post, the department itself acknowledged that it did not keep any information about these facilities.
Agencies said the low figure exposed the difficulties of tracking the whereabouts of the helpers waiting for visas, particularly those staying at unlicensed guest houses.An agent in Tai Po, who specialises in referring Indonesian helpers, told the Post that lockdown in the helpers’ home country had contributed to heightened demand simply because they were unable to go home. One of his helpers had extended her stay three times in the past three months, he said.
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