Hong Kong police have released the former employers of a Filipino domestic worker who fell to her death in Shenzhen in China last year.
A spokesperson for the Police Public Relations Branch said there was a lack of evidence to charge the couple, a 47-year-old man named Gu Huaiyu and a 32-year-old woman surnamed Liu, sunwebhk.com reported.
The spokesman said that “police are still investigating the case” without giving any further details.
The 28-year-old Filipino maid Lorain Asuncion was employed in October 2016 by the couple, who live at Island Harbourview in Tai Kok Tsui in Kowloon.
The domestic worker fell to her death from a building in Shenzhen – the 22nd floor flat of Liu’s father – in China on July 24 last year.
Earlier reports said the domestic worker had been taken to work on the mainland about five times and stayed around 40 days in Liu’s father home in Shenzhen’s Longgang district.
Asuncion’s sister Jenevieve Javier said the Hong Kong police called her on May 7 to inform her that the case against Gu and Liu had been dropped. She said she expressed surprise at how soon the police had decided to close the investigation against the employers.
Danilo Baldon of the Philippine Consulate’s section that assists Filipino nationals confirmed the case had been dropped.
Three autopsies were conducted on the worker’s remains but there was nothing suspicious found about her death.
Maid forced to work on mainland?
In August last year, police said it was not a case of human trafficking but they suspected the couple gave a false statement to the immigration department, as they claimed that the Filipino maid would only work in Hong Kong, Ming Pao Daily reported.
Hong Kong Employment Agencies Association chairman Cheung Kit-man said at the time that domestic workers should only work at a designated address in Hong Kong that the visa and contracted states. Agencies also had a responsibility to remind employers about that regulation.
The Labor Department says if employers make a false statement to the Immigration Department they are liable to prosecuted and could face a fine of up to HK$150,000 (US$17,200) and up to 14 years in jail.
Read: HK employers arrested after Filipino maid death in Shenzhen