Why Indonesian maids shun Malaysia

Poor policies, ill-treatment and official arrogance are among reasons why they avoid Malaysia as an employment destination, says Tenaganita.

PETALING JAYA: Indonesian maids are turning away from Malaysia as an employment destination because of poor treatment and official arrogance on matters concerning their welfare, said Tenaganita.

Its executive director, Irene Fernandez, said this in response to the Malaysian Association of Foreign Maid Agencies (PAPA) recent call to the government to look into why Indonesian maids were not coming into the country.

PAPA said maids were avoiding Malaysia despite amendments to the 2006 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which was signed in May and designed to end a two-year moratorium on the recruitment of domestic workers from Indonesia.

Irene said that the Indonesian Embassy has stated that there was no such moratorium enforced in place and that Indonesian women “simply do not want to work as domestic workers in Malaysia”.

“The MoU signed three months ago with Indonesia does not protect the rights of the domestic workers to Malaysia. The Employment Act does not recognise them as workers but as servants. This non-recognition opens the gate to exploitation,” said Irene.

She added that the right to day/days off in a week was vague in the MoU and there were no means to account for what constitutes as overtime and how it will be documented.

“The Human Resources Ministry has yet to develop a standard contract for work. The current policy and the MoU do not protect rights of domestic workers and thus they find that Malaysia is no longer a safe place to seek employment,” said Irene.

Dangerous destination for Indon maids

Tenaganita, she said, had conducted a study recently on recruitment of maids from Indonesia and it revealed that families “did not want to send their daughters to Malaysia as their lives will be threatened”.

“Malaysia is seen as a dangerous place, especially for women and domestic workers. Recent media reports of maids being locked away for days with little food and some being severely abused or even found dead only reinforces this belief,” she added.

Irene also said Malaysia’s response to these issues smacked of arrogance as there has been “absolutely no soul searching” on the part of the government to solve these serious problems.

She slammed director general of labour, Sheikh Yahya Sheikh Mohamed, who was quoted in The Star, as saying that Malaysia was not “desperate” for Indonesian maids and could hire maids from other countries.

“His statement smacks of arrogance. What he is saying is that since we are ‘rich’, we can move anywhere to recruit maids,” said Irene.

The recent decision by the Australian High Court to block the refugee swap deal between Australia and Malaysia was a slap to Malaysia’s policies and should “awaken us to change”.

Malaysia she said was shamelessly sliding back into exploitation and slavery as other nations move towards developed sustainability.

“The government can no longer sustain this form of modern day slavery manifested in domestic labour.

“Employers must realise that they can no longer expect cheap labour, demand 18-hour work schedules and silence migrant workers with the support of the state.”