Helping hand: Long waiting periods and stringent requirements meant many people may have turned to hiring maids through illegal means.
PETALING JAYA: After a prolonged back and forth on the Indonesian domestic worker issue, the republic is again having second thoughts about sending its workers here, claiming that many of its citizens were being smuggled into Malaysia to work as maids.
The embassy is basing its claim on the 70,000 applications received for Indonesian domestic workers from employment agencies, with only 3,200 contracts actually signed.
Ambassador of Indonesia to Malaysia Hermono, who revealed this, said he suspected that many domestic workers from his country were being illegally recruited.
Hermono said another meeting would be held between Indonesian Manpower Minister Ida Fauziyah and Human Resources Minister V. Sivakumar next Saturday to iron out the issues.
“My suspicion is that many domestic workers enter Malaysia through illegal channels. We are analysing this issue,” he told The Star.
Asked if there was a possibility of the Indonesian government placing another ban on its supply of domestic workers, Hermono said this would be up to the Indonesian government to decide.
Last year, the Indonesian government froze its labour supply to Malaysia as both countries could not reach an agreement on using a single channel called the One Channel System (OCS).
Previous to this, there were several hiccups in the negotiations between both sides.
OCS was one of the key points agreed upon by both governments in April last year in a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on the employment and protection of Indonesian domestic workers.
Under the MOU, the republic requires its recruitment to be done only through OCS, claiming that the existing Sistem Maid Online (SMO) from the Immigration Department would expose its people to human trafficking.
However, recruitment agents say that even nearly a year after the MOU was signed, the domestic worker recruitment issue has persisted.
Long waits for approvals and stringent MOU requirements such as a minimum salary of RM1,500 for maids and one maid serving a household not exceeding six people, have led to desperate employers going through illegal means.
National Human Resources Association Malaysia president Zarina Ismail said that the long wait for recruitment through authorised channels is the main reason why some employers may have resorted to illegally employing maids.
She said that most employers were in desperate need of domestic helpers and did not mind paying the fees.
“Some applications can take months to be approved. When that happens, employers give up waiting. They resort to the black market,” she said.
Following the issue, Zarina urged the authorities to immediately crack down on illegal agencies, and at the same time, improve the hiring process.
Association of Employment Agencies Malaysia (Papa) vice-president Suresh Tan suggested having the same application process for Indonesian domestic workers as other source countries, such as the Philippines, which uses the Foreign Worker Centralised Management System (FWCMS).
“We are bringing (Filipino workers) in properly through the system.
“If we can do this for the Philippines, then why would we want to come out with a different system for another country?”
Tan also said that the SMO should be activated again, with adjustments made to enhance transparency and accountability.
Under the SMO, Indonesian domestic workers entered Malaysia on tourist visas and then applied for work permits, but this was replaced by the OCS under the MOU.
