Amsterdam-based philanthropic organisation Porticus will close its Asia regional office in Hong Kong next year and open a new regional hub in Malaysia, according to an internal announcement seen by The New Humanitarian.
All eight staff at the Hong Kong office and one staff member based abroad who is also part of the regional office face potential layoffs, a staff member told The New Humanitarian, requesting anonymity to avoid reprisals at work. They have been offered the option to relocate to Malaysia, but their salaries would be adjusted to local market rates.
Porticus employs over 180 people, according to its website. Its staff work out of six regional main offices, as well as in India, Bangladesh, and several additional European offices.
Staff across the organisation are alarmed by the sudden announcement. “Is it me next? Is it my office next?” the staff member said, describing the atmosphere among colleagues.
The written announcement, shared with Porticus staff on 5 September, cited three reasons for the move: the high costs of operating in Hong Kong, a shift in activities from East Asia to South and Southeast Asia, and challenges posed by Hong Kong’s national security law.
“[Despite] little to no work in the region, we find our team and organisation exposed to increased scrutiny because of the National Security Law in Hong Kong,” the announcement said.
Hong Kong’s legislature passed the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance in March, making various, vaguely defined political crimes, like treason, sabotage, and insurrection, punishable by life imprisonment. China imposed a separate national security law on Hong Kong in June 2020.
But the staff member who spoke to The New Humanitarian said this explanation seems inconsistent with the organisation’s previous messaging about the law.
A few months after the 2020 law came into effect, Porticus received advice from the law firm Deacons that the national security law posed no threat to the organisation. The New Humanitarian has seen an internal document summarising the advice.
“We were told that the report came back and that it is still okay to operate in Hong Kong,” the staffer said.
A Porticus spokesperson declined to address questions about the impact of the national security laws on the organisation’s work or the 2020 legal advice.
“As a philanthropic organisation, we deeply value the well-being of our colleagues and partners in delivering on our mission,” the spokesperson said. “Sometimes, we have to make difficult choices, such as the relocation of our regional office in Asia from Hong Kong to Kuala Lumpur. This decision does not affect our programmes in Asia.”
Porticus is controlled by the Brenninkmeijer family – one of the wealthiest families in the Netherlands, known for the C&A clothing retail chain.
While its grantees tend to be relatively small NGOs working on education, climate, and migration issues, Porticus has also supported larger humanitarian organisations in recent years, including Danish Church Aid, Education Cannot Wait, and the International Rescue Committee (IRC).
Its status as a private philanthropy means it is insulated from the public funding shortfalls that have contributed to the recent cost-cutting at IRC and Save the Children, but Porticus staff feel similarly excluded from important decisions that affect them, the staffer said.
“Being able to dismiss us and then expecting someone else to pick it up – it doesn’t seem like the management even values… how relationships are being built. It’s actually quite cold.”
Like at these larger INGOs, the staffer said, Porticus’s work depends on building long-term relationships with partners.
“Being able to dismiss us and then expecting someone else to pick it up – it doesn’t seem like the management even values… how relationships are being built,” they said. “It’s actually quite cold.”
Porticus management held an “Ask Me Anything” session on 9 September to answer employees’ questions about the relocation. Hong Kong staff did not attend, telling management they preferred to engage with them in a different forum, the staff member said.
Staff in other regions questioned managers about why the Hong Kong decision was not announced last year, during a previous restructuring in which 12 people were laid off, according to the staff member. The managers replied that the two processes were separate, and said an office relocation is not a restructuring.
Porticus did not respond to questions about the previous restructuring or the timing of the relocation announcement.
“The process really speaks to how the organisation values you as staff,” the staff member said. “Easily reducible, like the work [we’ve] been doing for the last few years doesn’t matter.”
Porticus’s Hong Kong office oversees programmes in India, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines. A separate Dhaka office oversees work in Bangladesh.
The average Porticus grantee has an annual budget of around $800,000, according to a report published by the organisation this year. Its average grant size is $158,000, the report said.
Edited by Irwin Loy and Andrew Gully.
