New snag in hiring maids

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.