Hundreds of Indonesian domestic workers trying to fly back home for their country’s national day celebrations were left twisting in the wind after the Hong Kong travel agency they used to book their flights abruptly closed overnight.
According on.cc, the Travel Industry Council of Hong Kong confirmed yesterday that they received a notice from the manager of Free Spirit Travel Co. Ltd. stating that they were shutting their doors because of financial problems.
The agency specialized in cheap flights between Hong Kong and Indonesia, and the TIC said at least 460 people are believed to have been affected by the closure, losing a combined HK$1.2 million (about US$153,000) in invalidated airfares.
When Apple Daily reporters arrived at the travel agency’s office in Causeway Bay, they saw a group of at least 10 people, most of them Indonesian domestic workers, waiting outside the offices.
Police officers were at the scene this afternoon to usher the group out of the building and provide assistance.
A sign posted on the door of the office in Bahasa simply read that the agency was closed from today and that there was no one inside.
Most of the people waiting at the office had purchased tickets through the agency and were due to fly out today, but were either turned away at airport check-in when staff told them their tickets were invalid, or received messages from the travel agency warning them not to go to the airport.
One employer, surnamed Lam, told Apple Daily that her Indonesian domestic worker had purchased her ticket in early April and was due to fly to Jakarta at 9am. At 10pm last night, however, she received a WhatsApp message from a staff member at the travel agency saying that said the boss had absconded, the agency was closing, tickets that had been purchased early couldn’t be used, and that she shouldn’t bother going to the airport.
Lam told the newspaper she also called the airline, but they said her employee’s ticket was not valid. She said she would buy her another ticket and that hopefully her employee could fly out to Jakarta tonight.
One man, surnamed Yeung, said he and his Indonesian wife were planning on flying to the country to see family and friends over national day and spent HK$7,000 on tickets, only to be turned away at check in when they arrived at the airport.
Travelers who only buy air tickets from a travel agency — as opposed to a package ticket with hotels — are not protected by the Travel Industry Compensation Fund.
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