HONG KONG – A Hong Kong court on Friday ruled a law banning foreign maids from settling permanently in the city was unconstitutional, in a landmark case for domestic helpers.
The High Court said immigration laws barring maids – mostly from the Philippines and Indonesia – from applying for permanent residency violated Hong Kong’s mini-constitution, known as the Basic Law.
The legal action, brought by Evangeline Banao Vallejos, a Philippine domestic helper who has lived in Hong Kong since 1986, has cast a spotlight on the financial hub’s treatment of its army of 292,000 domestic helpers. Source: Inquirer
The way China works, Beijing must be finding ways to curb their fear of mass migration. With a huge population and the fact that labor sourced locally is better for them, this is just a minor setback that I'm sure they will correct. So this helps out present filipino workers, how will it affect the future filipino overseas worker to Hong Kong?
At this point, President Aquino's stubborness not to apologize for the Hong Kong hostage incident in Manila may come to play with this somewhat. The Hong Kong citizenry certainly won't forget that.
