Indonesians out, Cambodians in

Submitted by Izat
Wednesday, January 13th, 2010
The Malay Mail

1,500 to 3,000 Cambodian maids brought in every month, says Papa president
Darshini Kandasamy

KUALA LUMPUR: The freeze on new Indonesian maids has resulted in Cambodians taking their place.

The ban was put in place by Indonesia following cases of Indonesian domestic workers being abused in Malaysia.

Malaysian Association of Foreign Maid Agencies (Papa) president Alwi Bavutty told The Malay Mail that employers were hiring maids from other countries, especially Cambodia.

Before the freeze, a single maid agency would only bring in 20 Cambodians maids, said Alwi.

“Our intake of maids from Cambodia has increased threefold. Now, some 1,500 to 3,000 Cambodians are brought in every month,” he said, adding that the maids are trained in their home country before arriving in Malaysia and many were taught to speak basic English.

“The cost is similiar to that of an Indonesian maid. A Cambodian maid’s salary is RM500 to RM600 and it would cost an employer RM7,000 to RM8,000 to bring a maid in.”

Alwi said it would be “disadvantageous” for Indonesia to delay lifting the freeze. Apart from Cambodia, maids are also brought in from Vietnam and the Philippines.

Alwi said Papa was “in talks” to bring in domestic helpers from Papua New Guinea, Myanmar and the southern regions of the Philippines.

Maid agencies, he said, had decided it was best to seek maids from other countries for the betterment of the industry.

“We do not wish to be too dependent on one country as that could lead to problems, such as the maid freeze.”

Yesterday, the Human Resources Minister Datuk Dr S. Subramaniam said the joint Malaysia-Indonesia technical committee on foreign maids would meet again next month to end the Indonesian maid freeze.