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ong Kong District Court judge Amanda Woodcock sentenced Law Wan-tung on Friday to six years in prison for brutally torturing her Indonesian housemaid Erwiana Sulistyaningsih. '€œFinally justice is delivered,'€ Erwiana commented after the verdict.

Woodcock had ruled that '€œthe seriousness of the charges and circumstances of the offences means a lengthy prison time is appropriate.'€ She also fined the 45-year-old housewife HK$15,000 (US$1,930). Erwiana had worked for eight months for Law'€™s family in 2013 and had been brutally treated from the start.

As reported by the Associated Press, half of Hong Kong'€™s 330,000 foreign domestic workers are female Indonesians. Indonesia also sent, both legally and illegally, nearly 2 million migrant workers to work as domestic helpers and other blue-collar positions abroad, including to the Middle East countries, Malaysia and Singapore.

Law is just one of many employers who have exploited and abused their uneducated and poor employees. Despite having heard of such horrors, millions of poor Indonesians are still determined to try their luck, given few alternatives at home '€” where no formal guarantees exist for domestic workers regarding their protection and wages.

Hong Kong has taken many legal measures to ensure the safety and protection of migrant workers, being much more progressive than others hosting migrant workers, including Singapore, Malaysia and the Middle East countries.

After his discussion with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak in Kuala Lumpur earlier this month, President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo said Indonesia should stop sending domestic workers abroad. '€œThis is about our [nation'€™s] dignity. In my bilateral meeting with Malaysia, I felt very ashamed,'€ said Jokowi, who was apparently told by Najib about the situation confronting the Indonesians in Malaysia.

Many Indonesians join street protests every time our migrant workers are abused by employers. We feel outraged and humiliated by such incidents, as the President described, and are especially sensitive when the incidents take place in Singapore and Malaysia.

But though the bill on domestic workers'€™ protection was submitted to the House of Representatives 11 years ago it failed to even make the priority list of bills this year, leading to a hunger strike by advocates for our maids.

As long as the situation at home remains unconducive, young Indonesians will continue to take the risks, including with their lives, to work abroad, regardless of national '€œdignity'€. Hong Kong has proven its seriousness in protecting domestic workers, much more than us. We should feel ashamed.