Malaysia is one of Asia's biggest employers of foreign labour. But recently, cases of deaths, abuse and forced labour have come to light. What is going on? Who is protecting these migrant workers?
The country’s 240,000 domestic workers – more than 90 percent of them from
Indonesia – should be given the same protection as other employees, the New
York-based group said in a letter to Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
<p>"Indonesian domestic workers in Malaysia typically work gruelling 16 to
18 hour days, seven days a week, and earn less than five dollars a day,"
it said, with many employers withholding pay until the end of a standard two-year
contract.</p>
<p>"In Malaysia, most domestic workers are forbidden to leave their workplace
and many suffer psychological, physical, and sexual assault by labour agents
and employers.</p>
<p>"It’s time for Malaysia to clean up its own house by extending labour
protections to domestic workers," said LaShawn R Jefferson, women’s rights
director at Human Rights Watch.</p>
<p>Malaysia’s labour law, which protects most categories of workers, specifically
excludes domestic workers, the group said.</p>
<p><b>Thousands of complaints</b></p>
<p>Non-governmental organizations and the Indonesian embassy in Kuala Lumpur have
received thousands of complaints from maids about working conditions, wages
or abuse in the past few years, it said.</p>
<p>Malaysia promised last year to create a labour agreement with Indonesia on
migrant domestic workers within a three-month period, but more than a year had
passed with little, if any, progress, the group said.</p>
<p>It noted that Malaysia had recently shown interest in recruiting domestic workers
from Cambodia, Sri Lanka and Thailand because labour agencies have recruited
only 12,000 Indonesian domestic workers in the past six months instead of the
typical 60,000.</p>
<p>"The significantly lower pay and poor working conditions in Malaysia compared
to other common destinations like Singapore and Hong Kong have fueled the shortage.</p>
<p>"While Malaysia excludes domestic workers from most standard labour protections,
Hong Kong ensures domestic workers’ rights to rest days, a minimum wage, limitations
on hours of work, and to join unions.</p>
<p>"Malaysia is shooting itself in the foot by repeatedly failing to reform
its immigration and labour policies."</p>
<p>Human Rights Watch also criticised a crackdown since March 1 which has seen
the arrest of thousands of undocumented migrants, including refugees.</p>
<p>"Mass expulsions will not solve illegal immigration. The government must
commit itself to meaningful labour reforms and the prevention of abuse,"
the group said. – AFP
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