A volunteer gathers info from Fita, a 49-year-old Indonesian home employee who escaped the lethal fireplace at Wang Fuk Court docket housing advanced in Tai Po, Hong Kong, Nov. 28. Reuters-Yonhap
HONG KONG — Sobs may very well be heard throughout Hong Kong’s Victoria Park on the weekend as tons of of migrant employees mourned victims of Hong Kong’s worst fireplace in additional than a century and prayed for lacking pals.
Many discovered themselves in limbo after the catastrophe.
No less than 10 of the 146 folks killed within the fireplace that devastated the high-rise towers of Wang Fuk Court docket have been migrant employees, an usually missed phase of the workforce.
Dozens extra are unaccounted for, in accordance with an AFP tally primarily based on info from consulates.
Hong Kong is dwelling to almost 370,000 migrant home employees, predominantly ladies from the Philippines and Indonesia caring for infants and the aged in a metropolis with an ageing inhabitants.
Migrant employees usually have Sundays off and prayers have been held in neighbourhoods throughout the town. Attendees advised AFP about pals who had gone lacking and the way help efforts for survivors at occasions fell brief.
Sudarsih, an Indonesian girl who has labored in Hong Kong for 15 years, stated two of her pals have been nonetheless lacking.
“God bless, they are going to be discovered shortly and are secure,” she stated.
These on the Victoria Park occasion sang hymns and prayed close to a banner on the bottom that learn: “Dearly departed ones: highest respect and recognition to the loyalty and bravado of migrant home employees.”
Dwi Sayekti, 38, stated she hoped the catastrophe could be the “first and final.”
“I hope sooner or later, it does not occur once more. And all of those that misplaced their lives in Tai Po will be discovered,” she stated in a damaged voice.
Throughout city, in Hong Kong’s central enterprise district, round 100 Filipino employees held a prayer assembly at their regular Sunday gathering spot with glittering workplace buildings looming overhead.
“We’re praying that hopefully there might be no extra casualties on this fireplace tragedy,” stated Dolores Balladares, chairwoman of United Filipinos in Hong Kong.
‘Responsibility’
Most of the well-wishes have been directed in the direction of Rhodora Alcaraz, a younger girl from the Philippines who began working in Hong Kong just some days earlier than the tragedy.
In an unverified however broadly circulated account of occasions, Alcaraz shielded her employer’s 3-month-old toddler along with her physique when the hearth broke out.
When firefighters discovered them within the smoke-filled condo, she was nonetheless cradling the newborn.
Alcaraz was reportedly admitted to an intensive care unit, although AFP was unable to verify her newest situation.
Fellow migrant employee Michelle Magcale stated she felt “so unhappy” and “speechless” upon listening to the information.
“I am unable to categorical how unhappy it’s,” the 49-year-old stated.
“On behalf of her obligation, on behalf of her accountability, she saved yet one more life … we’re grateful for that,” she added.
Balladares, the Filipino group chief, stated, “We additionally salute her as a result of she gave her finest… to guard the household.”
Manila’s consulate in Hong Kong stated a girl named Maryan Pascual Esteban was killed within the fireplace, forsaking a 10-year-old son and her household in Cainta, Rizal.
One Filipino nationwide was injured and the standing of seven others had but to be verified, the consulate added.
Jakarta’s consulate stated 9 Indonesians have been killed within the fireplace with one injured and 42 others at present unaccounted for.
Help wanted
Greater than 50 survivors have sought assist from the Asian Migrants’ Coordinating Physique, in accordance with spokeswoman Shiela Tebia.
Tebia stated the ladies urgently wanted clothes, particularly underwear, including that their ID playing cards and passports had been burned .
They’re “nonetheless processing, and a few truly can not sleep nicely… they’re additionally traumatised,” Tebia advised AFP.
“However regardless of that situation, they nonetheless have to help their employer as a result of their employer can be grieving.”
Tebia stated the consulates have promised assist for victims however specifics have been missing.
Sringatin, chair of Indonesian Migrant Employees Union, advised AFP the consulate couldn’t present info in a well timed method, whereas her group tried to “make folks much less panicked”.
Members of the family of every deceased sufferer will obtain HK$200,000 ($25,700) in authorities help.
However that was solely an “preliminary step,” stated Edwina Antonio, the chief director at Bethune Home migrant ladies’s refuge.
“What about those that survived?” she stated. “(These) who’re nonetheless in Hong Kong, they misplaced every little thing that they’ve.”
Antonio urged the federal government to incorporate migrant employees when providing monetary help, as a result of they’re “usually the one breadwinners of their households.”
