keeping helper's passport?

[rani]

Regardless of what your helper may use their passport for, it is illegal to keep it. I think the rule of thumb shoul be - how would you feel of your employer.....? For example, if your employer said to you - ' Give me your passport, I will keep it,' you would know straight away that what they were asking was illegal and refuse to let them have it. So why should anyone have the right to keep their helpers passport?

Beky, you can't compare the two. If you default on a loan the collection agency will not call and harrass yr boss or send thugs to his house. If you have a naive and gullible helper then I don't think its wrong to hold her passport, you're protecting her and your family

 

[hunhun]

Geez! What should one do if such uneventful thing does occur? How do you "ask" the loansharks/thugs to leave? Any use calling the police? Will they stop?

 

[rani]

Hermoine,

I would definitely call the police. We had to call the police a few months ago because our ex-helper had an outstanding phone bill. An automated machine would call our home phone 4X day as a payment reminder. We spoke to the company and told them she'd left us over 18 months ago and to stop calling. They said we needed to send a fax, so I faxed them a letter, but the calls didn't stop. We called them again, and we threatened them but they didn't care. In the end we called the police and within 24 hrs the calls stopped.

Rani

 

[barbwong_130]

If you have problems with threatening people and telephone calls please do contact the police. A friend of mine had problems with triads trying to find her husband. These men were very frightening for her and her young family. But once she called the police the threats stopped immediately.

What I remember is surprising in this story was her maid?s reaction. She was amazed that the police in Hong Kong could be so helpful without being bribed.

Best wishes,
Barb

 

[dulce]

Keeping helper's passport

Beky, you can't compare the two. If you default on a loan the collection agency will not call and harrass yr boss or send thugs to his house. If you have a naive and gullible helper then I don't think its wrong to hold her passport, you're protecting her and your family

Rani wether Becky has a naive and gullible helper it is still not right to hold her passport. What are you trying to imply is , it is right to take an advantage to those naive helpers and that is absolutely not right. There should be no descrimination in the level of knowledge of every helper.

 

[rani]

There are plenty of people who make a living by taking advantage of helpers. Employers are just protecting them.

 

[shri]

Well, I think can see both sides of the fence.

There is a desire to protect a helper, given that passports are very often misused by loan sharks.

Yes, the helper can report the passport lost and get a new one, and yes, you can call the cops if the loan sharks harrass you (we have.. and it worked).

However, every society has boundaries that are enforced. To use an extreme situation, to justify my point -- I know GI Joes in the US who claim that they're being persecuted because they can die for their country at the tender age of 19, but they cannot drink legally in their countries. Why? The goverments (elected by us, the citizens) have figured that they are not responsible to make a certain decisions on their own.

Many helpers who come to Hong Kong, specially from rural areas have not experienced the many temptations that are going to be thrown at them. Just like some of our children have not. It is almost essential to protect them.

Now, if your value system says that you want to protect them by keeping their passports, after explaining to them, that they can ask for the passport at any time, they want it... for a legitimate reason.

Would you give your 16 year old full access to your platinum Amex? I don't think so ... not until he's proven his ability to use it wisely and even then, you'd probably want to get him a low limit credit card. (You'd be surprised how many orders we get on shopinhk.com from kids who have taken their parents credit cards without their permission...).

I know I'm using extreme examples .. but I also do hope that you consider that you're not taking the passport to enslave someone and deprive them of their freedoms, you're taking it to protect them.

 

[bekyboo44]

If you can't trust your helper with her passport, how on earth can you trust her with your house and your children?

There are plenty of naive and gullible helpers, as there are plenty of naive and gullible people but it is still illegal to hold someone elses passport.