A group of migrant workers in Hong Kong, including Filipinos, lambasted the Legislative Council’s (LegCo) final vote against the inclusion of foreign domestic workers (FDWs) in the statutory minimum wage. “Slavery, marginalization and discrimination have now been put into law in HK. There is neither justice nor democracy in the Legislative Council’s (LegCo) vote against [...]

For Immediate release. 10 June 2010 Indonesia must enact Domestic Workers Protection Law now Committee for Asian Women calls on the Indonesian parliament to prioritise the deliberation and enactment of the Domestic Workers Protection Bill of 2010, submitted to the House of Representatives in 2009 for the purpose of recognising legal rights of domestic workers [...]

The abuse of domestic workers, the majority of whom are women, is still widespread in South Africa despite calls for the government to intensify the implementation of the domestic workers law. The Sectoral Determination 7: Domestic Worker Sector law, which was promulgated in 2002, set minimum wages and conditions such as working hours, leave days [...]

Jakarta – Not all domestic workers in Indonesia are as lucky as Inem, Indonesia’s favorite maid in Nya Abbas Akub’s 1976 blockbuster comedy Inem Pelayan Seksi (Inem, the sexy maid), who ended up marrying her employer’s boss and living happily ever after. In fact, Inem did much to romanticize the life of domestic workers, just [...]

JEDDAH: There is a move on the part of Saudi authorities to stop housemaids coming from certain countries. “We are serious in imposing a ban on the import of housemaids from Sri Lanka, Nepal, Cambodia and Vietnam,” said Ali Al-Quraishi, vice president of the local Labor Recruitment Committee. “The main reason for considering such a [...]

CARAM Asia Critique of the 3rd Global Forum on Migration and Development Athens, Greece 4th-5th November 2009 As governments from around the world convene for the third annual Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) many in the civil society sector continue to question the credibility of the forum as a valid platform capable of [...]

An Indonesian maid who was found beaten in the home of her Malaysian employers died on Monday, after being hospitalized nearly a week, officials said. Her employers, a Malaysian couple from Klang Selangor, about 50 kilometers from Kuala Lumpur, were arrested and face murder charges, according to an Indonesian Embassy official. The victim, Muntik Binti [...]

CHENNAI: More than 400 domestic workers from 25 areas across the city stayed away from work protesting against the government’s inaction in protecting their rights and failure to fix minimum wages. Responding to the one-day strike call given by Penn Thozhilalargal Sangam (PTS), an independent women workers’ union, its activists assembled at Gandhi Statue in [...]

As today marks a day where the international community seeks to recognise the contribution of foreign domestic workers (FDW), CARAM Asia and its members call on governments throughout the world to immediately amend national employment laws to recognise domestic work as work.  The International Solidarity Day with Foreign Migrant Domestic Workers was first launched in [...]

How long will the country tolerate the prolonged slavery of housemaids? The government insists it is difficult and potentially counterproductive to regulate the domestic sub-sector and the House of Representatives has not made the issue a top priority. However, the government and civil society groups have cried out against the inhumane treatment of Indonesian migrant [...]