More Indonesian maids by year end?

November 22, 2009

By WANI MUTHIAH

KLANG: Malaysian households may be able to employ Indonesian domestic workers again by the end of the year.

Human Resources minister Datuk Dr S. Subramaniam said discussions were currently underway between Malaysia and Indonesia to iron out some issues.

There are only a few more issues that needed to be settled and once this was done, Indonesian maids could come into Malaysia again, Dr Subramaniam told newsmen Sunday.

He was in Klang to give away school uniforms to Tamil school children from low-income groups.

The event was organised by the Kota Raja MIC division.

Indonesia had banned the supply of domestic workers to Malaysia in June after several cases of maid abuse had been reported here.

Dr Subramaniam said he hoped everything would be wrapped-up by the end of the year so that Malaysian employers can resume hiring domestic workers from Indonesia.

According to Dr Subramaniam, Indonesia had voiced its readiness to settle the impending issues as soon as possible.

Currently there are 280,000 Indonesians domestic workers here.

Dr Subramaniam's first round of discussions with his Indonesian counterpart Erman Suparno began on July 6 as several more talks had been held since.

Among the issues trashed out at these meetings were the procedures involving the recruitment of Indonesian domestic workers.