Hong Kong  - Filipino maids in Hong Kong are outnumbered for the first time by domestic helpers from Indonesia, according to government figures published Sunday.

The number of Indonesian maids in the wealthy former British colony is now more than 130,000 and they account for 49 per cent of all live-in foreign domestic helpers, the figures showed.

The number of Filipino maids, who for decades have made up the majority of domestic helpers, has, meanwhile, fallen to around 128,000. There are also about 3,500 maids from both Thailand and Sri Lanka.

The government statistics, published in the Sunday Morning Post newspaper, follow a sharp rise in the number of maids hired from Indonesia in the past six years.

The main reasons for Hong Kong families preferring Indonesian maids is that they speak better Cantonese and are prepared to work for less than the legal minimum wage.

There is a government-set monthly minimum wage of about 460 US dollars for foreign domestic helpers, but Indonesians have a long-standing reputation of being prepared to work for less.

Agencies offer under-the-table deals to employers under which Indonesian maids work for as little as a half the legal minimum wage.

Families in Hong Kong began to hire Indonesian maids in large numbers after the 2003 economic downturn triggered by the deadly outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS. (dpa)