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RI workers in HK seek help from home

As face masks in Hong Kong become more expensive and harder to find, Indonesian migrant workers are turning to families and friends at home to send them the masks that have become a necessity to help protect against coronavirus

Asip Hasani and Ardila Syakriah (The Jakarta Post)
Blitar/Jakarta
Tue, February 11, 2020

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RI workers in HK seek help from home

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span>As face masks in Hong Kong become more expensive and harder to find, Indonesian migrant workers are turning to families and friends at home to send them the masks that have become a necessity to help protect against coronavirus.

A migrant worker from East Java's Blitar, Anis SD, took to a Blitar-community Facebook group to complain about how she was struggling to find face masks and instant food that are fast running out in stores in Hong Kong. She also uploaded a picture of messy shelves at a convenience store in Hong Kong.

"Face masks and instant food, such as noodles, have been scarce in recent days," Anis told The Jakarta Post.

She said that China-made face masks were still available at some stores but they were offered at six times the normal price despite their low quality. Following advice from fellow migrant workers, she decided to ask her family in Blitar to send face masks from home.

"I hope they arrive this week," she said, adding that thousands of fellow workers were facing a similar situation.

Anis said these workers in Hong Kong continued to communicate through WhatsApp and Facebook groups to share useful information about the outbreak.

Tens of thousands of Indonesian migrant laborers — mostly domestic workers — are currently working in countries and territories with confirmed coronavirus infections, such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macau, Singapore and Malaysia.

Blitar is among the East Java regencies that send the highest number of migrant workers. Blitar Manpower Agency recorded 4,377 migrant workers had departed from the regency to work abroad in 2019, with a majority being placed in Hong Kong and Taiwan. More than 95 percent of them are women working in the informal sector, mainly as domestic helpers.

Blitar-based migrant worker organization Pertakina said that the real number could be more than double, when taking into account undocumented workers.

Concerns have emerged about how the outbreak will affect the many Indonesian migrant workers abroad, especially after a 44-year-old Indonesian domestic helper in Singapore tested positive after contracting the virus from her employer, making her the first Indonesian to be infected abroad.

Pertakina’s head, Sulis, said that she received plenty of online messages from migrant workers, especially those in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore, complaining about the scarcity of face masks and instant food, adding that many of them had sought help from their relatives at home.

Several drugstores in Blitar and its nearby regency of Tulungagung, also a major migrant worker-sending regency, have run out of face masks since consumers mostly buy them in bulk.

"For more than a week, demand for face masks rose drastically, with each consumer buying face masks in large numbers — several boxes each," said Yati, a staffer at Blitar's largest drugstore.

Some migrant workers have resorted to such lengths, as their employers in Hong Kong and Taiwan have failed to provide face masks and other necessities to prevent infection, said Sringatin, the chairperson of the Indonesia Migrant Workers Union (IMWU) in Hong Kong.

Sringatin also raised concerns about the living conditions of migrant workers in Hong Kong, particularly after she found some of them had to share bedrooms with the employers' family members, fearing that it would make them vulnerable to infection.

“The Indonesian consulate has provided face masks, but migrant workers must collect them at the consulate office, resulting in long queues. I think it's better for them to set up several distribution posts," she said.

The Indonesian Consulate General in Hong Kong had distributed at least 30,426 face masks to Indonesian citizens coming to its office as of Saturday, while another 12,000 had been distributed through various Indonesian organizations across New Territories region in Hong Kong.

"Given that there are around 174,000 Indonesian citizens [in Hong Kong], face masks will still be a necessity in the future," Consul General Ricky Suhendar said on Sunday.

Among those lining up to get face masks at the consulate office on Sunday was a 38-year-old domestic helper from Kediri, East Java. The woman, who refused to be named, said that her employer had asked her to buy face masks on her own, which had proven difficult, as the price of face masks had spiked dramatically from HK$60 (US$7.70) to HK$300 at a store near her employer's house.

"Thank God I received some from my friends, who had face masks sent to them either from Indonesia or from migrant worker organizations. This morning I also lined up to get face masks from the consulate office. But I only got three face masks although I had to wait in a quite long queue," she said.

She said that following the outbreak, it was harder for her to get permission from her employer to go out during her day off, let alone look for masks, because the employer feared she might contract the virus — an argument she deemed discriminatory.

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