A Sri Lankan house maid had filed a law suit in the Hong Kong High Court claiming that the HK Government requirement that helpers lived and worked in their employer’s residence violated international law against slave labour, the EJ Insight news website said.

It said:

“In a writ filed in the High Court on Tuesday, Rankothpedi Duravalage Kamalawathi, said she had been mistreated by her employer since she was hired in 2012.

She claimed that she is now suffering from schizophrenia and auditory hallucination, which prevents her from continuing to work.

Kamalawathi blamed her condition on exploitation by her employer. She said her employer paid her less than the minimum wage, cut her leave short and demanded she worked in multiple places.

She said that although the Director of Immigration has the authority to put restrictions on conditions of domestic helpers’ stay, such restrictions should be limited only to their types of work, employers and work addresses, and should not apply to regulate where they sleep.

The live-in requirement not only breaches international law but also makes foreign domestic helpers like her discriminated against since other foreign workers doing other jobs are allowed to choose where they can live.

She asked the court to find the requirement unreasonable and illegal.

The case is the second of its kind after a domestic worker sought a judicial review on the live-in requirement in November last year. “ (EJ Insight)