JAKARTA, May 28 (Bernama) -- Malaysians who recruit Indonesian domestic maids on their own must make use of the services of Indonesian labour placement agencies or risk being detained while leaving Indonesia with their maids and charged with human trafficking under Indonesian law.
While the prospective employers of the maids are not required to make use of Malaysian maid agencies, Indonesian law stipulates that it is mandatory to make use of the services of Indonesian labour placement agencies, Malaysian Ambassador to Indonesia Datuk Zainal Abidin Mohamed Zain said today.
"Indonesian law, among other things, emphasises that the use of the local (Indonesian) labour placement agencies is mandatory to meet several conditions governing the recruitment of domestic maids, and failure to do so can result in the prospective employers being charged with the serious offence of human trafficking which carries a heavy penalty," he said.
Law No. 39 of 2004 on Indonesian Manpower Placement and Protection stipulates, among other things, that it is mandatory to make use of registered agencies for placement of Indonesian manpower.
Zainal Abidin told Bernama that as such, Malaysians could not just walk into Indonesia and return with the domestic maids they had recruited on their own despite having fulfilled all conditions imposed by the Malaysian immigration authorities.
Without the document which could be transacted only by the local labour placement agencies, the prospective Malaysian employers of the domestic maids could be detained at exit points in Indonesia, he said.
Zainal Abidin did not give statistics but said many Malaysians had been stopped while bringing along with them the domestic maids they had recruited without the complete papers as stipulated under Law No. 39 of 2004.
"They pleaded they had know knowledge of the law but ignorance of the law is not an acceptable excuse," he said, adding that the detained Malaysians had the harrowing experience of being held in a foreign country.
By Mohd Nasir Yusoff
-- BERNAMA
