A Hong Kong private club has been accused of discrimination and racism for erecting a sign explicitly banning domestic helpers from its pool area.
“No Domestic Helpers Allowed in the Swimming Pool Area,” reads the sign posted at the Clearwater Bay Golf and Country Club, a photo of which was circulated on Facebook recently.
The club, opened in 1982, has moved to justify the notice on grounds of “space” and members’ welfare, according to the SCMP, which first reported the story yesterday.
“We have provided benches at the seating area near the pool for domestic helpers, this is to avoid overcrowded [sic] at the poolside and to ensure all visitors’ safety,” a representative told the newspaper.
The response online, however, has been scathing, with many pointing out the sign reflected a broader attitude toward foreign workers in domestic roles.
“What’s wrong with theses people!!,” said one user, commenting on Facebook about the issue.
“This is completely insane to treat like that the people that helps (sic) you!”
“This is 100% discrimination,” wrote another. “HK [is] so advanced but the discrimination still exists here.”
One user named Malcolm Conlan took the club to task for “treating domestic helpers like second class citizens”, saying domestic workers were “people who sacrifice their own families, leaving behind their own relatives, partners and even their own children to look after the citizens of your country.”
He added: “Your establishment wouldn’t even afford them the decency to swim in the same water as those they care for?”
According to the SCMP, a spokesman for the Hong Kong’s Equal Opportunity Commission (EOC) said the club’s ban, prima facie, did not necessarily constitute discrimination, saying other factors around the notice’s rationale would need to be considered first, including whether the policy would be detrimental to persons of a particular race.
The spokesman added that anyone who felt they’d been discriminated against could file a complaint with the body. The SCMP pointed out that such policies — restricting access for domestic helpers — were in place at other Hong Kong private clubs.
Daisy Mandap, editor of the Hong Kong-based Filipino newspaper The Sun, called it “blatant discrimination” and demanded the EOC take action.
“(The EOC) shouldn’t hide behind the reasoning that no racial group was directly targeted, because clearly, domestic helpers in Hong Kong come from only a few specific racial groups – Filipinos and Indonesians mostly, and a few from other countries,” she told Coconuts.
“It should not wait for victims of the discrimination to file a complaint because the racist prohibition is there for everyone to see.”
Mandap, who moved as a journalist to Hong Kong in the 1980s, said that such attitudes manifested in more than just private club pool policies.
“Discriminating against foreign domestic workers (FDWs) is nothing new in Hong Kong. By excluding them from the minimum wage law and other labor laws applied to all other workers, the FDWs are already discriminated against,” she said.
“This was also made clear when the courts ruled that FDWs can never aspire to become permanent residents, no matter how long they have lived and toiled in Hong Kong.
“If the government cannot take action to stop such blatant discrimination, what hopes do our migrant workers have about being treated fairly in this so-called Asia’s world city?”
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