Why do maids travel to UK with employers and then vanish?
Why the UK?
There has been a rising number of cases of maids who travel there with their employers and then disappear.
The mysterious circumstances under which they vanish has been puzzling the police.
The one thing that all these disappearances have in the common is that they happen in the UK.
No one knows where these maids go to and why they suddenly vanish out of the blue.
CLAIRE
This happened recently with a Hong Kong family.
Their maid, whom they said they trusted deeply and were on good terms with, had been taking care of their baby daughter and their daughter had become very attached to her.
The South China Morning Post reported that this Hong Kong-based family had recently arrived in Kent, which is near London.
The names of the people involved in this case have been changed.
Claire and her family had taken their Filipino maid, Isabel, 40, with them on their holiday to the UK.
Isabel had been working for her for the last five years.
On the first day of their holiday, Isabel had told Claire that she wasn't feeling well and chose to stay indoors.
After Claire and her family came back from their 90-minute outing, Isabel was gone.
Police said that CCTV footage showed Isabel making her way to a nearby train station.
They also said that maids disappearing like that in the UK was a common occurrence.
Of her maid's sudden disappearance a month ago, Claire said: "We feel very betrayed."
"We are pretty heartbroken, especially my daughter.
"She's been in tears, asking why she won't come back. That's the worst part."
HELEN
In 2010, Helen travelled to London for 10 days and her maid also disappeared from her Kensington flat.
She said: "We thought she might have gone to the supermarket but there was no note, nothing, so we were worried.
"Then we were angry because we just didn't see it coming.
"The police weren't shocked and said this happens a lot."
MICHAEL
Six years ago, Michael and his wife were in London with their maid when the latter ran away when she was at London Park.
This maid had been hired in Hong Kong and subsequently followed Michael and his wife when they moved to Dubai.
Said Michael: "She wanted to use the toilet and she was never to be seen again."
He added that the police told them that such cases were common in the UK.
According to Mr Philip Kelly, the director of the York Centre For Asian Research in Canada, he said that it was rare for maids to run away because of better employment prospects.
Source: South China Morning Post
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