Hidden charges lead to higher cost of recruiting foreign maids

High cost of help: As demand for foreign maids go up, the cost of recruiting them has skyrocketed. — FAIHAN GHANI/The Star.

MORE and more Malaysian households are hiring foreign maids to do the domestic chores, watch over children and take care of the elderly. But as demand goes up without a corresponding increase in supply, the cost of hiring a maid has skyrocketed in recent times.

The recruitment fee was between RM16,000 and RM20,000 before the Covid-19 pandemic, but because of pandemic-related expenses, the cost has gone up to as high as RM25,000. Now that the pandemic has stabilised, there is no indication that the recruitment cost will be heading south.