Bangladeshi housemaids are facing multiple challenges in Hong Kong due to obvious cultural, communication and language gaps, a government fact finding team identified during a recent visit.
The perspectives on food are different, officials said on Sunday.
The programmes to prepare the expats and their families before expatriation, they said, should take into account factors like how they would adapt in the foreign environment warding off culture shock.
The programmes ought to prepare the housemaids about Chinese customs and food.
The antipathy to pork, an unknown food, and rearing pigs, an unfamiliar animal, are also problem areas, according to the team.
Cooking pork and handling pigs pose problems as do the requirement to spend the weekends and holidays outside the house they work for, said officials.
The team also found that Bangladeshi housemaids in Hong Kong were facing problems in keeping their jobs in a competitive market due to inadequate skills in spoken Cantonese.
After a visit to Hong Kong, the team led by Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training additional director general Jabed Ahmed returned home on November 9, they said.
Officials said the team was preparing a report with suggestions that the housemaids could be selected from the hill districts of Bandarban, Rangamati and Khagrachari.
It would also suggest inclusion of teaching spoken Cantonese language in the government’s training courses for the housemaids, they said.
According to BMET data, out of 161 housemaids who had taken employment in Hong Kong until November 10 through two local recruiting agencies, at least eight returned quitting their jobs and 10 others lost their jobs, manpower sources told New Age.
The returnees complained they could not cope with the work load, inadequate food and cultural barrier.
They also complained that additional charges were imposed by local recruiting agents in Hong Kong.
Jabed Ahmed told New Age that the government would strengthen the in-house training for the housemaids.
Housemaids from the Philippines and Indonesia dominate Hong Kong’s job market, said the BMET official.
He said that 50 percent of the first batch of Indonesian housemaids had returned home a 50 years ago unable to adjust with the new culture.
Jabed said that in Hong Kong he spoke to labour department officials who assured him that the law in Hong Kong protected the housemaids’ rights.
IOM officials said that the recruiting agencies in Hong Kong could help sort out the problems between the housemaids and their employers, he said.
When asked, Pervez Siddique, a senior official at Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit of Dhaka University, advised the authorities to arrange 15 to 30 days’ internship for the housemaids at foreign households before sending them to Hong Kong.
He said it would prepare the housemaids against culture shock abroad.
The team, he said, suggested selecting the housemaids from Bandarban, Rangamti and Khagrachari as it would be easier for them to adjust in Hong Kong.
-With New Age input
