CRIME | 27 helpers kept under house detention

The Judiciary Police apprehended a man and a foreign domestic helper for being accomplices in an illegal detention scheme conducted by a Hong Kong-based company offering private household employment services.
According to the authorities, a total of 27 foreign domestic helpers, all from Hong Kong, were collectively held in an 800 square foot residential apartment with only three rooms and denied exits, with their passports withheld. Among the detainees, aged between 29 to 55 years old, were 16 Indonesians and 9 Bengalis, as well as two from the Philippines. One of them was allegedly kept inside the flat for over two months.
It was reported that the employment consultancy company, which was behind the illicit detention, intended to send the sacked housekeepers to Macau before new employment arrangements were made for them in Hong Kong. Fearing that the detainees would escape to seek other working opportunities in the city, the company appointed an Indonesian woman, also a local domestic helper, as a watcher for the group, and she was responsible for their meals. Another man involved in the case was said to be a Hongkonger, aged 48.
The detention came to light after one of the newer captives reported the crime to the local police.