Institute for Migrant Rights
Railway line at Cianjur station, c. 1890 · KITLV, CC BY 4.0

Migration Jurisprudence from the South › Hong Kong

HKSAR v. Law Wan-tung (Erwiana Sulistyaningsih case)

District Court, Hong Kong · Hong Kong · 2015-02-27 · National court

Citation: DCCC 474/2014
Type of case: Criminal
Outcome: Decided for the migrant side

Question

Was the employer of an Indonesian domestic worker guilty of assault, criminal intimidation and failing to pay wages and give rest days?

What the court decided

Yes on 18 of 20 charges; sentenced to six years’ imprisonment and a fine.

In plain language

An Indonesian domestic worker was badly beaten by her employer and sent home barely able to walk. Her case caused protests. The court convicted the employer and sent her to prison for six years.

Dalam bahasa sederhana

Seorang pekerja rumah tangga Indonesia dianiaya berat oleh majikannya dan dipulangkan dalam keadaan hampir tak bisa berjalan. Kasusnya memicu protes. Pengadilan memvonis majikan dan memenjarakannya enam tahun.

Pertanyaan: Apakah majikan pekerja rumah tangga Indonesia bersalah atas penganiayaan, ancaman dan tidak membayar upah serta hari libur?

What happened afterwards

  • 2014-01: Worker returns to Indonesia injured.
  • 2015-02-10: Employer convicted.
  • 2015-02-27: Sentenced to six years.
  • 2018: Civil damages awarded to the worker. [Check.]

Sources

Open this decision in the interactive collection (compare, filter, Indonesian view, downloads).

Cite as: Institute for Migrant Rights (2026), Migration Jurisprudence from the South, version 0.1, https://theimr.org/court-decisions/d/hk-erwiana-2015/. This page summarizes a court decision for research and advocacy; it is not legal advice.

For researchers

This collection of decisions is built for empirical legal scholarship and socio-legal research on migration and the rights of migrant workers, as well as for advocacy.

The coded variables support statistical analysis in law: cross-national comparison, regression and event-history designs, and law and economics questions such as how recruitment fees, wage protection and limits on changing employer affect migrant workers. The data can be downloaded for replication.

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