Hong Kong

Press Coverage

This website was covered by the South China Morning Post in this article.

Purpose

We created this tool to visually illustrate the suspicious relationships between employment agencies and money lenders that should not exist in an ethical and competitive industry.

Background

In 2026, Hong Kong witnessed a substantial foreign domestic worker population, as revealed by data from the Census and Statistics Department. At the close of the year, the city hosted a total of 378,830 foreign domestic workers, with the majority hailing from the Philippines (over 205,000) and Indonesia (over 163,000), collectively constituting approximately 41% of this workforce. Alongside this significant labor force, Hong Kong also boasted around 4,000 employment agencies. However, concerns have arisen regarding the legality of some of these agencies, with suspicions of dubious relationships among agencies themselves and their associations with moneylenders. This complex landscape underscores the importance of exploring the status and operations of employment agencies in Hong Kong. Knowing the license or legitimacy of an agency is crucial to guarantee a safer workplace for the domestic workers, as it directly impacts their rights, protections, and overall well-being within the city.

Research (In 2018) has shown that over 70% of agencies are known to be operating illegally ^[1].

Results

The 2026 scan covered 3,977 employment agencies in Hong Kong.

1,969 agencies (49.51%) share a bounding address with another agency, over 16,504 links, 142 of which lead to a money lender.
- Same bounding address between agencies means that agencies map to the same location, in practice the same building, and their relationship might be suspicious as they might be owned by the same entity who tries to “spread risk” over multiple agencies in case some get shut down due to illegal practices.
- An agency located adjacent to a money lender is highly suspicious because the agency likely forces the domestic worker to take out a high-interest loan from the money lender.
301 agencies (7.57%) share the same phone number with another agency, over 457 links.
- Phone number sharing between agencies is highly suspicious as it indicates that an agency owner is trying to “spread the risk” over multiple agencies in case some get shut down due to illegal practices.
257 agencies (6.46%) share the same email address with another agency, over 408 links.
231 agencies (5.81%) share the same fax number with another agency, over 316 links.
1,004 agencies (25.25%) share the exact same address and room number with another agency, over 1,351 links, 29 of which lead to a money lender.
- Address sharing between agencies is highly suspicious because it suggests that an agency owner is trying to “spread the risk” over multiple agencies in case some get shut down due to illegal practices.

Despite such obvious concerns, the number of employment agencies in Hong Kong continues to increase.

Agency Visualizer

Using publicly scraped data, the Agency Visualizer tool illustrates suspicious relationships between employment agencies as well as between employment agencies and money lenders. The visualizer displays the following relationships:

Same Address: Represents two entities located in the same building, on the same floor and in the same room.
Bounding Address: Represents two entities that map to the same spot, in practice the same building. Their geocoded locations sit within about a metre of each other.
Telephone: Represents two entities sharing the same phone number.
Email: Represents two entities sharing the same email address.
Fax: Represents two entities sharing the same fax number.

There are two extra features in the visualizer, which are:

Foreign Domestic Worker Agencies: Displays the FDW agencies that are located in Hong Kong.
Agencies With No Relationships: Displays the agencies that don’t have any relationships with another agencies or moneylenders.

Agency Search

The Agency Search tool provides a more detailed view of each employment agency’s information, including a textual view of the relationships displayed in the Agency Visualizer.