Hong Kong Covid divide: Expats get more perks while domestic workers lose their

On Mar 15, 2022

She immediately told her employer, who urged her to get to a hospital. But once she was there, she said she was turned away, with staffers explaining there was no room. They advised her to go home and quarantine.

The problem? Her place of work was her home and “my employer didn’t want me to come back,” said Maria, noting that they had “kids in the house.”

“I said, ‘I don’t know where I can go. We don’t have a place,'” she told CNN Business, breaking into tears. She asked not to publish her real name, for fear of reprisals from current or future employers, and to not worry her family abroad. CNN Business agreed to call her “Maria.”

Maria, who is from the Philippines, returned to the hospital, where she spent the night sleeping on a chair in the emergency room, along with a friend in a similar situation. But the next day, they were told by a nurse more expressly to “go away,” she said.

Not knowing what else to do, they set up camp on the street.

In recent weeks, dozens of domestic workers have been cast out on the streets in Hong Kong after testing positive for Covid-19. One worker, not pictured here, said she was not allowed home with her employer over fears of contagion.

“We cannot express what [we] feel [at] that time — just crying only,” said Maria.

Maria and her friend eventually found a shelter to stay in, run by the charity HELP for Domestic Workers.

Maria is one of dozens of migrant domestic workers who have been abandoned — and temporarily made homeless — in Hong Kong after testing positive for the coronavirus, according to the charity. Her story, and others like it, shine a light on deep-seated inequalities in the city that are worsening under a devastating fifth wave of Covid-19.

To be sure, workers across the spectrum are struggling in Hong Kong, given its rigid pandemic measures.

But as top companies give their employees more flexibility and even help pay for expensive hotel quarantines, local businesses are teetering on the brink of collapse. And while some expatriates can command higher salaries for simply agreeing to move to the city, the city’s poorest are struggling just to afford food or basic necessities.

Heading for the exits

The widening gap comes at a time when Hong Kong is facing an exodus of expats, despite the additional benefits on offer, which continues to raise questions about its future as a global business hub.

Many foreigners have had enough of the city’s unwavering commitment to its “zero Covid” policy, even as cases surge to record highs and cause more fatalities, overloading the health care system and delivering a huge punch to the economy.

Throughout 2020 and 2021, more residents left Hong Kong than came in, according to official population statistics. That marked a reversal from early 2019, when the population was going up.

Last month alone, more than 94,000 people departed the city, while only about 23,000 came in, immigration data showed.

Hong Kong expats are up in arms about quarantine. Singapore stands to gain

“The recent wave of emigration is leading to a shortage of skilled workers and impacting businesses of all sizes,” the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce said in a statement earlier this month.

The group’s chairman, Peter Wong, said the city was “facing an exodus of educated workers on a scale not seen since the early 1990s.”

“This will have a material knock-on impact on the economy,” he added. “There is real cause for concern if we cannot stem the current brain drain.”

The city has been largely

Hong Kong Covid divide: Expats get more perks while domestic workers lose their

Heading for the exits

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