Text : Chow Mun Yan, Li Tsz Wun
Photo: So Hoi Ying
“IT’S not as interesting as what you usually see on the Internet about working holiday”, said Clare, a 22-year-old Hong Kong girl who went to Australia for working holiday.
Clare was born in a single-parent family. She did not maintain a good relationship with her mother and sister. As she finished her study in secondary school, she started to plan for her working holiday trip.
Despite of this, she is actually an energetic girl, who likes exploring and travelling all around the world. She went to Australia from July 2013 to August 2014. “I was attracted by the advertisements about Australia working holiday on the Internet. Photos showed harmonious atmosphere and people were all smiling happily.” After doing some researches, Clare decided to go there alone without informing her family.
As she started her life in Australia, she found that it was not as easy as what she thought before. “Household families and employers were not so friendly to me,” said Clare, in a disappointed way. She stayed in the East Coast at the first place, and rented a room in a local household family for 3 months. “The price they offered to me was 2 times higher than the Europeans.”Clare felt unfair so she argued with the household, however, she was chucked out without being returned the rental. “I would never forget what they did to me”, said Clare.
After travelling for 6 hours on train, Clare went to a farm and found a job there. Again, the wage was also much lower than that of the locals and Europeans. Besides, other workers also bullied her. They pushed most of their job duties onto her and just sat there waiting for pays. “I never know that discrimination would be so serious there.”
After staying in the East Coast for 3 months, Clare went to Melbourne. “I did not have enough money at that time, so I have to find a local’s home to stay.” She searched on the Internet for a while and a local man agreed to let her stay in his house.
“He told me there were other people in his house, but there was not. There was only him,” said Clare, in a worried way. After going in his house, the man asked Clare for sex in order to exchange for a free night staying there. “I was so scared at that moment, I really did not know what I should do in order to escape from him”. She lied to agree at first, and escaped successfully while he was taking a shower.
Misfortunes never come alone, Clare went to the famous Casino in Sydney, Star City, gambling there in order to earn more extra gains. Unluckily, she lost all of her money and needed to lend from “loan shark”. When she felt desperate, one of the local Asian helped her to pay and asked her to work for him in order to repay the debts. At last, she contributed her time working there and tried to save money for coming back to Hong Kong.
We sent an email to the Commissioner for Labour, Donald Tong, inquiring him what can we do in case of having the same situation like Clare. “First, for those participating the working holiday scheme may seek help from local Chinese embassy or consulate when they have accidents,” replied Mr. Tong.
