Postcard from... Hong Kong

Hong Kong’s Filipina maids are to blame for the infidelities of their rich expat employers. Or at least that was one pro-Beijing politician’s contribution to public discourse this week.

Regina Ip, a member of the Executive Council, wrote in a paper that the domestic helpers were seducing their male employers and ruining marriages. And the Hong Kong government was “allowing” them to do so. Ip said women in Discovery Bay had complained to her about their errant husbands – who presumably were powerless to resist their low-paid employees, whose immigration status is entirely tied to continued employment.

A migrant-rights group has called on the Philippines government to ban her from the country. But the comments are notable also for the tone-deafness. Ip accused foreign media of focusing on the plight of some domestic workers in the Chinese territory, where they are excluded from many labour laws and are often abused or exploited, to the negligence of this “issue”.

An Indonesian was recently killed under a falling concrete slab after being made to sleep on her employment agency’s balcony. When asked about the comments, the former security secretary refused to apologise, and stuck by her story. Much like the “seduced” husbands are sticking to theirs.