Talks under way to source maids from Cambodia [Good news! Singaporean employers are more compasionate than Malaysian employers]

By Amelia Tan

The Straits Times

Published on Sep 22, 2012 

Move will help ease shortfall in domestic workers from Indonesia

Cambodian maids at a training centre in the country's capital, Phnom Penh.

Talks are under way to bring in Cambodian maids to help offset the shortfall in domestic workers from Indonesia.

The Straits Times understands that the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) is looking to make Cambodia an approved source country for domestic workers in Singapore and will make a decision soon.

When contacted, Association of Employment Agencies (Singapore) president K. Jayaprema said her organisation had been working for several years with MOM and the Cambodian government to make Cambodia an approved source country for foreign maids.

She added that the association had "revived the discussion", but declined to say more.

Background story

WHERE SINGAPORE'S MAIDS COME FROM

• MOM's website lists approved source countries and territories for foreign maids in Singapore as: Bangladesh, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Macau, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan and Thailand
• Most of the 206,000 maids in Singapore are from Indonesia and the Philippines