21 May 2007
KUALA LUMPUR,(Bernama) -- Malaysians currently have to fork out up to RM6,000 to get an Indonesian maid through the "back door" due to the shortage of supply, Home Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Radzi Sheikh Ahmad said Monday.
However, the situation might change soon if the Indonesian government agreed to Malaysia's proposal to increase the maid recruitment fee to RM4,000 from about RM3,000 now, he said.
He said that under the government-to-government Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed previously, the recruitment fee was agreed upon at around RM3,000 but the Indonesian recruiters claimed that they did not make much profit so they enforced the condition that if Malaysians wanted to hire Indonesian maids they had to pay more or get their maid elsewhere.
"Malaysian employers have no choice but pay because of late we are having a shortage of Indonesian maid supply," he told reporters after opening the Biosafety and Biosecurity Asia 2007 Conference on behalf of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
Mohamed Radzi said the matter would be discussed with his Indonesian counterpart when they meet at the end of this month, along with the proposal to have maids covered by insurance policy.
"We are hoping that these options will help us to increase the supply which is made worse by their agents' refusal to send maids to the country," he said.
Elaborating on the fee, Mohamed Radzi said that under the present MoU, Indonesian recruiters would profit RM460 from each maid they sent to Malaysia, while their Malaysian counterparts would get around RM600.
"They (Indonesian recruiters) claimed that the RM1,500 paid to them was not sufficient to cover their expenses, which included accommodation, food, a few days of training and travelling from kampung expenses, whereas our agents paid for the rest, such as airfares and levy," he said, adding that the government had no complaints from local agents.
Asked on the cause of shortage, he said it was probably due to the lack interest of Indonesians to work as maids here as the wages were much lower compared with other countries such as Singapore and Hong Kong.
He, however, said that Malaysia would not propose a salary increase or a fixed wage during the upcoming the meeting.
