Immigration Dept approved entry of over 6k domestic workers

 

The Immigration Department approved 6,535 MyTravelPass applications to facilitate the entry of migrant domestic workers through the Maid Online System (SMO) during the pandemic, between August 2020 and December 2021.

Home Minister Hamzah Zainudin said the figure comprised new recruit applications and Temporary Employment Visit Pass (PLKS) holders whose passes had lapsed when they returned to their respective countries.

“This was in line with the government’s effort to improve the delivery system of integrated government service,” he said.

Hamzah (above) said the department received 4,535 new recruit applications and 4,756 PLKS holders who wanted to return to their employers.

In his response to Ipoh Barat MP M Kulasegaran, Hamzah told Parliament yesterday that the recruitment of domestic workers through the SMO continued to be in operation since its inception in January 2018.

“The movement control order was enforced in March 2020 to curb the spread of the Covid-19 virus and that included strengthening our border controls.

“The government introduced controls on the entry of foreign nationals into Malaysia with strict controls through MyTravelPass,” he said.

Hamzah explained that the SMO provided an online service for the recruitment of domestic workers from nine source countries.

“The recruitment process through SMO was done by employers looking to employ migrant domestic workers before the PLKS was issued,” he added.

In Hamzah’s response, he shared that the highest number of applications came from Indonesia, with 7,412, followed by the Philippines (1,405), India (144), Vietnam (94), Sri Lanka (87), and other countries (149).

Border closed to migrant workers

In a media statement on Sept 19 last year, Human Resources Minister M Saravanan reminded employers there would be no entry of migrant workers, including domestic workers, into Malaysia until Dec 31.

Saravanan said any decision to reverse this would be made only after discussions between the National Security Council (NSC), Human Resource Ministry, Home Ministry, Health Ministry and other relevant ministries.

The country’s borders were closed to migrant workers and the Human Resources Ministry only started processing new applications in mid-February this year.

Human Resources Minister M Saravanan

Meanwhile, last month, the Indonesian Ambassador to Malaysia, Hermono, lamented that the Immigration Department - under the purview of the Home Ministry - continued to accept applications from new Indonesian domestic workers.

This was despite the Human Resources Ministry's agreement through ongoing bilateral negotiations, to enforce a One Channel System (OCS) of entry.

MyTravelPass could encourage labour trafficking

In January this year, four Indonesian women who entered Malaysia the previous year via MyTravelPass escaped their abusive employer by scaling down from the third floor of an apartment block.

They told Malaysiakini that if they knew they were taking irregular channels to enter Malaysia, they would not have left home.

Commenting on their case, lawyer and mediator CR Selva cautioned authorities that allowing the usage of MyTravelPass for new labour recruits into Malaysia would turn the sector into a hotbed for labour trafficking and unprecedented degrees of forced labour.

Referring to the US State Department’s 2021 Trafficking in Persons report on Malaysia, Selva said official complicity undermined anti-trafficking efforts, which were why immigration clearance documents such as the MyTravelPass had outlived its purpose. - Mkini