Hong-Kong: Demand to reopen investigation into death of migrant worker intensifies

"We are not pointing the finger at anyone or implying anyone is guilty of any crime," Jim Rice, a professor of law at Linguan University, told Mabuhay at a rally of around 500 people in front of the Hong Kong Police Headquarters, Harcourt Garden, on April 27, to petition the police to reopen their investigation into the cause of death of 31-year-old Filipino domestic worker, Vicenta (Vicky) Flores, whose body was found in Tung Chung Harbour, Lantau Island, on April 11, four days after she was seen running from her employers’ home on the evening of April 7, wearing only pyjamas and barefooted.

She was cited again, a 35-minute bus ride away, at Tung Chung Harbour Pier at 9.15pm, but not reported missing for a bit more than 24 hours, at 9.50pm on the following evening. Flores employer told police that he had hired a Discovery Bay Transport car (the road is open to designated vehicles only), but they did not begin any investigation until the body was positively identified by Flores’ aunt, who recognised a mole on her face and a lump under her foot, 10 days later on April 15. Rice said that "with so many loose ends, the closure of the police investigation into Flores’ death leaves too many unanswered questions and too much doubt in too many people’s minds."

While the police have expressed certainty that Flores’ disfigured face, which was sufficiently horrific to prevent her employer of 12 years from making a positive identification, was the result of being washed against the rocks where the body was found, local residents and community groups are equally suspicious that it may have been caused by falling onto rocks before she died.

The speed with which police have concluded that there are no suspicious circumstances surrounding the death has enflamed the long-held belief among migrant workers that crimes committed against them are not investigated thoroughly. They are also complaining that the abrupt conclusion smells strongly of a suggestion of suicide, which those who knew Flores well, vigourously reject as being a probable cause of death.

Rice explained that a laminated prayer card was found in the pocket of Flores’ pyjamas, which police had initially interpreted as a Catholic ritual connected with suicide. He noted that the fact that they had not checked their assumption indicated that they were looking for evidence of suicide.

However, Flores’ sister, Irene Flores-Reguis, who travelled from Manila to represent her family in Hong Kong, explained to the police that suicide has no part of Catholic faith life and is regarded as a sinful betrayal of human dignity, but Rice commented that the tendency to jump to conclusions out of religious ignorance reflects badly on the overall thoroughness of the investigation.

Rice, who is a resident of Discovery Bay, said that Flores’ friends have attested to her sanity and stable character and say that she did not have any financial problems or, as a single person, complications in her love life. She was a dedicated Catholic and an active and regular member of the community at Trinity Chapel, Discovery Bay.

However, he added that her friends had told him that on a few occasions she had spoken of being harassed by her male employer and showed visible signs of disgust in her body language when relating the details of the incidents. While Rice noted that none of these would amount to a reason for committing suicide, friends specifically said that Flores had admitted to being frightened.

Dolores Balladares, of the United Filipinos in Hong Kong, was critical of the police for failing to interview the witness who claimed to have seen Flores running from her employers’ home in her pyjamas on the night she disappeared. She added that they are appealling to the police not "to brush off Vicky’s death or merely reduce it to a tragic case of drowning, or worse, suicide, considering the suspicious circumstances that preceded the tragedy."

The family later requested an autopsy on the body, which had been done by April 27, but results are yet to be given to the Coroner’s Office. Police have agreed to pass the findings to the Philippine consulate general.

Meanwhile, numbers at a gathering in Discovery Bay on April 27 appealing for local community support to reopen the investigation swelled to around 1,000 at the end of Mass as Filipinos, Indians, Indonesians and Europeans flocked out of the centre to the rallying point. A good number later took the ferry to Hong Kong to join the rally at the police headquarters.

Rice told the rally that their action was as much about their own rights as those of the late Flores, explaining that a small, but disturbing number of Hong Kong people are exploiting the court system by making false allegations of theft against domestic workers.

"Because it is regarded as a breach of trust," the lawyer explained, "courts take the charge seriously. But it has been proven they have made some bad decisions and around five or six domestic workers have done up to six months behind bars for crimes it was later proven they did not commit."

He stressed the importance of knowing your rights in order to be able to defend yourself against similar malicious actions.

[Sunday Examiner]