(20 Jan 2014) Hong Kong police arrested a woman on Monday for allegedly torturing her Indonesian maid, the latest case to provoke outrage over abuses suffered by the city's army of foreign domestic workers.
Police said they detained a 44-year-old woman at an airport as she was trying to catch a flight to Thailand.
Senior police inspector, Chan Wai-man told reporters gathered outside Tseung Kwan O police station that the woman had been detained in connection with the case of Erwiana Sulistyaningsih and the abuse of another Indonesian domestic worker.
The case drew attention after photos started circulating among Indonesians in Hong Kong of Erwiana Sulistyaningsih's injuries, showing her face, hands and legs covered with scabs and lacerations, and blackened skin around her feet.
An Indonesian migrant workers' union in Hong Kong said the maid, who arrived in Hong Kong in May last year, was tortured by her employers on a daily basis and forced to wear a diaper.
The 23-year-old was allowed to return home earlier this month after her injuries prevented her from working, and was only given the equivalent of about nine US dollars by her employer, according to the union.
Migrant worker groups in Hong Kong held protests on Sunday and on Thursday to bring attention to the case and highlight what they called "modern day slavery."
Protesters marched through the streets of Hong Kong carrying placards reading "No To Modern Day Slavery, Make Live-Out an Option" and chanted "Justice for Erwiana."
Sringatin, a spokesperson for the Indonesian Migrant Workers Union, who like many Indonesians uses only one name, said it was hard to believe the abuse case happened in Hong Kong.
"We know that like Erwiana case is only happening in Middle East but why it happens in Hong Kong? This is Hong Kong, it's a modern city" she said.
A report in November 2013 by Amnesty International slammed the Hong Kong and Indonesian governments for allowing conditions that left women working as maids vulnerable to widespread abuse and exploitation, including restrictions on freedom of movement, physical and sexual violence, lack of food and long working hours.
Sringatin said that the regulations governing migrant workers meant that workers were "more vulnerable and abused by their employers, and nobody know what happens inside of the house."
There are about 312,000 foreign domestic workers in Hong Kong, with Indonesians accounting for about half and Filipinos making up most of the rest. Most are young women.
Last year, a couple was sent to prison for torturing their Indonesian maid with a hot iron, a paper cutter and a bicycle chain.
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