Balancing act: Magazine editor Dewgem Yen, 26, tending to her son Gideon Heng while doing house chores at her home in Petaling Jaya Sunday. Yen, who has been working for two years said that balancing work, housework and her baby can get really tough.By JOSHUA FOONG
joshuafoong@thestar.com.my
PETALING JAYA: Some 35,000 families are being forced to do a “huge balancing act” as the shortage of foreign maids turns critical with supply dwindling down to a trickle.
To add to the problem of Indonesia’s moratorium on maids, Cambodia is also facing difficulty in sending domestic helpers aged above 21.
Malaysian Association of Foreign Maid Agencies is urging the Government to seriously attend to this pressing matter and consider lowering the age limit of foreign maids to allow more maids in from Cambodia.
> Parents are sacrificing quality time with their children as weekends are used to complete household chores.
> Freelance agents are cashing in on the situation to offer “informal” ways of providing domestic help, including getting Indonesian maids into the country despite the freeze by the Indonesian government.
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35,000 families badly hit by shortage of maids
PETALING JAYA - TENS of thousands of families are in a lurch as the shortage of foreign maids has become more acute.
With only about 200 foreign maids arriving monthly compared to more than 1,000 several months ago, the waiting list is getting longer by the day.
Malaysian Association of Foreign Maid Agencies (Papa) estimated that about 35,000 families were in desperate need of maids with the average waiting time now stretching to more than seven months.
The problem is caused by a continued freeze imposed by Indonesia - the biggest supplier of domestic helpers - on its people from coming to Malaysia as maids since last year. Now, it has been worsened with Cambodia being unable to meet the shortfall.
On average, 7,000 maids are needed per month to replace those who go home after their contracts expire, but the number of new arrivals is less than 5 per cent of that figure, Papa secretary Foo Yong Hooi said.
He said the problem was temporarily solved when Malaysia opened its door to maids from Cambodia, but after about eight months of high demand, the country now faced difficulties in supplying enough maids. He said Cambodia would be able to supply more maids if the Government was willing to lower the minimum age limit of maids to 18 years from the current 21. -- THE STAR/ANN
PETALING JAYA: Some 35,000 families are being forced to do a “huge balancing act” as the shortage of foreign maids turns critical with supply dwindling down to a trickle.
To add to the problem of Indonesia’s moratorium on maids, Cambodia is also facing difficulty in sending domestic helpers aged above 21.
Malaysian Association of Foreign Maid Agencies is urging the Government to seriously attend to this pressing matter and consider lowering the age limit of foreign maids to allow more maids in from Cambodia.
> Parents are sacrificing quality time with their children as weekends are used to complete household chores.
> Freelance agents are cashing in on the situation to offer “informal” ways of providing domestic help, including getting Indonesian maids into the country despite the freeze by the Indonesian government.
---------------------------------------------
35,000 families badly hit by shortage of maids
PETALING JAYA - TENS of thousands of families are in a lurch as the shortage of foreign maids has become more acute.
With only about 200 foreign maids arriving monthly compared to more than 1,000 several months ago, the waiting list is getting longer by the day.
Malaysian Association of Foreign Maid Agencies (Papa) estimated that about 35,000 families were in desperate need of maids with the average waiting time now stretching to more than seven months.
The problem is caused by a continued freeze imposed by Indonesia - the biggest supplier of domestic helpers - on its people from coming to Malaysia as maids since last year. Now, it has been worsened with Cambodia being unable to meet the shortfall.
On average, 7,000 maids are needed per month to replace those who go home after their contracts expire, but the number of new arrivals is less than 5 per cent of that figure, Papa secretary Foo Yong Hooi said.
He said the problem was temporarily solved when Malaysia opened its door to maids from Cambodia, but after about eight months of high demand, the country now faced difficulties in supplying enough maids. He said Cambodia would be able to supply more maids if the Government was willing to lower the minimum age limit of maids to 18 years from the current 21. -- THE STAR/ANN
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