We refer to the Maid Agency Fee hike proposal to RM 8,000 per Indonesian Maid placement by the President of Persatuan Pekerja Asing on June 24, 2008.
PAPA President had deceived the Malaysia Public by comparing the Maid salary in Hong Kong and Taiwan because all the maids that work in these two countries had to go through intensive training and well prepared to carry out the household Chaos. It is wrong to compare Apple for an orange!
Maids heading to Malaysia were not properly trained, they were traded like a human commodity among the Indonesian Agents and Malaysia Agents; the nature of market demand and supply often prevails in PAPA president's media statement.
In the similar issue, the Press Statement issued by the Malaysian Ambassador, Dato' Zainal Abidin Zain in supporting such a proposal in view of the increment of the recruitment cost and levy which should cost more than RM 3,700.
The Media statement issued by Malaysia Ambassador that hiring direct from Indonesia is an act of Human Trafficking is grossly misleading. It has the ill intention to defy the rights of employers to employ the right workers while denying the intelligence of workers to get the best deals.
The basis of Human trafficking must involved the motive of exploitations and profiteering from the victims. Only Malaysia Agents fit this description for the exorbitant fees imposed while oppressing the salary of the Maids.
It is timely for Malaysian Foreign ministry to seriously investigate the possible involvement of our foreign missions in the organized human trafficking via workers agents while the Ambassador may have been confused about the Human trafficking matter and grossly ignored the pleas of Malaysia women illegally trafficked and stranded in Indonesia
We at Migrant Care, Jakarta wish to inform the Malaysia employers and public that:
1. Proposal of PAPA to increase the Maid agency fees to RM 8,000 is grossly unfounded and highly exploitative and unfair to the potential employers.
2. The Official cost involved in the recruitment of the Indonesian Maid is as follows:
| Butir- Butir | Kos RM |
| Passport | 100.00 |
| Pemeriksaan Kesihatan | 80.00 |
| Kos Latihan 4 -6 minggu | 200.00 |
| Tenpat Tinggal dan makan waktu Latihan | 200.00 |
| Hantar jemput fdari Kampung | 250.00 |
| Tiket Pesawat ke Malaysia | 300.00 |
| Keuntungan Agen Indonesia | 300.00 |
| Kos Sponsor | 600.00 |
| Lain-lain | 150.00 |
| Jumlah | 2,180.00 |
| Jumlah yang diabayar Majikan | 8,000.00 |
| Keuntungan yang di ambil Agen Malaysia | 5,820.00 |
3. The exorbitant charges imposed by Malaysian agents who only provide Data to the end-users do not deserve such a huge profit margin the official cost of hiring is only RM 2,180 per maid while Gross profit distributed among the Human supply chains and corruption is RM 5,820 per person.
4. The Maid salary has been stagnant at RM 450 to RM 500 per months since 2005 but the Agency fees had increased from RM 3,500 to RM 6,000; It is rational to asked why pay more to the human Bio-data traders while the workers still grossly underpaid and far below the Poverty line income of RM 800 per month.
5. Rational Employers should prefer to pay the higher salary to the well trained maid rather than those recruited from very remote village and not properly trained. Its timely to ask ourselves if it is fair to pay 15 months of the salary to the agents who sell bio-data or increase the salary to attract better trained Maids ?
6. Malaysia Anti Corruption Agency should probe into the huge hidden cost in the process of hiring Indonesian maids that may involved Malaysia Embassy in Jakarta and Malaysia Immigration department who are largely responsible for the in take of foreign workers from Indonesia.
The in depth study of South East Asia migration history has proven that the biggest organized Human trafficking syndicates are the licensed and legalized employment agents in Indonesia and Malaysia
Jakarta, Thursday, June 26, 2008
ANIS HIDAYAH (Executive Director) +6281578722874
WAHYU SUSILO (Policy Analyst) +628129307964
ALEX ONG (Malaysia Representative) +60163121201
