Maid agency groups at odds over recruitment policy

 

Malaysia allows Indonesians who want to work here to enter on a tourist visa before applying for a work permit, but Jakarta wants the practice to stop. (AFP pic)

PETALING JAYA: Two maid employment groups have clashing views regarding Jakarta’s call for an end to the practice of allowing Indonesian domestic workers to enter Malaysia with a tourist visa before they apply for the necessary permits.

Malaysian Maid Employers Association (Mama) finds the current practice satisfactory while the Association of Employment Agencies Malaysia (Papa) said this practice should be stopped as it could be exploited, as feared by Indonesia.

Mama president Engku Ahmad Fauzi Muhsein told FMT no case of exploitation had been reported although he said it was understandable that Indonesia was concerned for the well-being of its citizens,.

“The current policy by the government does considerably well in facilitating and expediting the process of employers acquiring domestic workers from Indonesia,” he said.

“Their work permits are properly processed and issued in accordance with the existing immigration policies and law. How could they be exploited?”

He said Mama was hoping the two governments would resolve the issue amicably so there would be no more delays in the entry of Indonesian maids into the country.

Papa president Foo Yong Hooi said bringing in domestic workers as tourists opened up an avenue for illegal agents in Indonesia to demand exorbitant prices for the maids from legal agents.

He said many women preferred to go through illegal agents to avoid undergoing the mandatory 200 hours of training stipulated by the Indonesian government and to enable them to work immediately instead of being at recruiting centres for a few months.

He told FMT this meant that legal agents in Malaysia had to face competition from illegal agents, resulting in legal agents having to fork out more money to pay the local recruiters.

“The high cost will ultimately be absorbed by Malaysian employers,” he said. “So it has a bad effect on the recruitment ecosystem.”

He said it would be best to bring in domestic workers through legal channels.

“If they are coming through employment agencies, these agencies are obligated to assist them to ensure their welfare and protection,” he said.

Putrajaya and Jakarta are due next month to sign a new memorandum of understanding on the employment of Indonesian maids in Malaysia.

Abdul Rahman, the Indonesian social mobiliser for the North-South Initiative activist group, said he feared the exploitation of more Indonesians if Malaysia did not heed Indonesia’s call. - FMT