HONG KONG: First, there was the flap in Malaysia over the abuse of Indonesian maids, which led Jakarta to block more maids from going there to work until safeguards could be agreed on.

Now, groups working with Indonesian maids in Hong Kong have gone public, alleging that maids are often physically and psychologically abused, and are being illegally underpaid to boot, reported Deutsche Presse-Agentur.

A campaign launched by two labour organisations claims that many of the 135,000 Indonesian maids in the territory are beaten and also earn a fraction of the minimum US$460 (S$670) salary.

Kicking off their push, which proposes a blacklist of offending employers and agencies, the groups said one domestic worker was regularly kicked and slapped by her boss, who once stabbed her with chopsticks and also cut her pay to US$38 (S$55).

The number of Indonesian maids in Hong Kong is set to exceed the number of Filipino maids soon. They are said to be preferred as they speak better Cantonese and cost less to hire.