Hong Kong's foreign 'helpers' fight for equality

Every Sunday in Hong Kong, thousands of women spread out blankets and flattened cardboard boxes on the city's sidewalks, underpasses, and public squares, they sit themselves down on the hard concrete, and then they relax.

t's not a luxurious or even comfortable way to spend a day, but they have no choice. They have nowhere else to go. These are the city's foreign domestic workers — the maids, the nannies, the "helpers" as they're called here — and because they are forced to live with their employers and have no homes of their own, they spill out onto Hong Kong's streets during their days off.

The ground-level plaza at HSBC's headquarters is a popular gathering place, where almost every inch of space at the base of the skyscraper is taken up. Across the street, there are more groups of women in Statue Square, and beside it, the underground walkway that connects Chater Road and Connaught Road is lined with women who are passing the time by socializing, playing cards, reading, and eating their picnic lunches.

There are an estimated 300,000 domestic workers in Hong Kong, most are from Indonesia and Philippines, and regardless of how long they live here, they're not allowed to apply for residency. That sets them apart from other foreigners who come to this wealthy city to work and are eligible to apply after seven years.

"It's unfortunate there is this climate of exclusion in Hong Kong," says Norman Uy Carnay, an advocate with the Mission for Migrant Workers, a support organization. The residency rule is one of many that discriminates against domestic workers, he said, and that they're fighting to change.