Cambodia bans citizens from working as maids in Malaysia

Oct 15, 2011
Reuters

PHNOM PENH: Cambodia has banned its citizens from going to work in Malaysia as maids, its prime minister said on yesterday, following a series of horrific reports of beatings and rapes.

The order follows a similar ban imposed by Indonesia on its citizens from taking new jobs as domestic workers in Malaysia, where maids are common in middle-class households, thanks in part to a large migrant labour pool.

“I would like to congratulate the prime minister for the suspension,” Cambodia opposition lawmaker Mu Sochua of the Sam Rainsy
Party told Reuters after the decision by Prime Minister Hun Sen.

Cambodia’s Community Legal Education Centre, which is working with abused domestic workers, said there had been reports of maid abuse in Malaysia.

Indonesia banned its citizens from working as maids in Malaysia in 2009 after several highly publicised cases of physical abuse by Malaysian employers, which triggered anti-Malaysia demonstrations in Jakarta.

Both countries held discussions and reached an agreement in April this year after Malaysia pledged to improve working conditions, but Indonesia has yet to allow hiring to resume, worsening a growing shortage of domestic helpers in the country.

An Bunhak, president of the Association of Cambodian Recruiting Agencies, said it would uphold the order from the government to stop sending people to work as maids in Malaysia.

“The Ministry of Labour is enforcing what the prime minister has said,” An Bunhak said, adding that about 50,000 maids have sought work in Malaysia since 2009. — Reuters