After a 21-day mandatory quarantine at a government-designated hotel and one week's self-monitoring at another hotel required by the employer to cut the risk of COVID-19 infection, Mustini - a domestic worker from Indonesia - was finally able to start work in Hong Kong on Feb 16.

It had been more than a year since she applied for a work visa with Hong Kong's Immigration Department, during which she had missed out two potential employers. Her travel plans were disrupted several times by flight cancellations and difficulties in booking a room at the city's limited number of quarantine hotels earmarked for foreign domestic workers.

In efforts to contain the pandemic, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government has maintained a "dynamic zero infection" policy, with some of the strictest travel curbs in the world. While there are no regulations governing the number of FDWs entering the city, the dearth of quarantine hotels designated for FDWs last year has created an invisible cap.

Late last month, the SAR government announced that all FDWs arriving in the city from March 1 can choose to be quarantined at any designated hotel. Hopefully, the measure will ease the acute shortage of FDWs.

According to Hong Kong's Immigration Department, the number of FDWs in the city had dwindled to 337,281 by late January from about 400,000 two years ago. This has sparked concerns among employers about the growing scarcity of labor and a price war in hiring FDWs.
It used to take about two months for an FDW to set foot in Hong Kong after having submitted all documents for processing. But this could now take about six months to a year due to flight disruptions and new quarantine hotel arrangements amid the pandemic, said Thomas Chan Tung-fung, chairman of the Hong Kong Union of Employment Agencies.

The struggle to book quarantine rooms for FDWs and the lengthy period for processing documents, coupled with high quarantine hotel costs, which have soared to between HK$15,000 ($1,920) and HK$18,000, have forced employers to consider other options. They now prefer to hire FDWs who are still in Hong Kong.

The domino effect has been a boom in FDW's wages as employers tussle for helpers, while employment agencies specializing in getting FDWs to Hong Kong have suffered a blow to their business, according to Chan.