Job scams in Malaysia lead to human trafficking: Hisham | Daily Express Online

Kuala Lumpur: Shocked by the exorbitant cost of hiring a maid, many Malaysians have resorted to unregistered agents to solve their problem.

With ‘sky high' fees of up to RM15,000,  they are left with no choice but to resort to these agencies which offer lower fees.

In the end, many have reportedly lost huge amounts of money down a ‘maid sinkhole' as these unregistered agencies exploit their dire need for domestic help.

According to the Secretary General of the  Malaysia International Humanitarian Organisation (MHO) Datuk Hishamuddin Hashim, the high cost of engaging a maid has opened new avenues for human trafficking syndicates to go full swing with their ‘maid selling activities'.

“They (unauthorised agents) would make a profit-sharing pact with these maids to cheat employers who are desperate for domestic help. Usually,  the cost charged by these unregistered private agencies is around RM7,000.

“Just imagine in a month, the same maid can swindle and disappear after serving for several days in three houses and they could easily earn RM21,000,” he told Bernama recently.

Given the high cost of hiring maids, Hishamuddin said the government through the Ministry of Human Resources should take steps by reducing the cost in a bid to avoid the people from falling prey to maid scam operators.

“Domestic helpers have become a necessity especially for working parents in Malaysia. However, with the high cost (RM15,000) of hiring a maid, who can afford to pay for such services and there is no guarantee that the maid will not abscond after receiving her payment.

“There were cases when maids fled after working for three or four months. As such, many people prefer to hire maids through licensed foreign worker employment agencies under the Ministry of Human Resources and the embassy,” he said.

He said the ministry should engage in discussions to reduce the costs of hiring domestic helpers to a more suitable level to encourage the selection as well as the hiring of maids from registered agencies.

From the enforcement aspect, he is of the view that the Immigration Department of Malaysia (JIM) can implement a tagging system to track maids who are on the run.

“Whenever maids run away, we do not know where to find them. I propose that there should be an application similar to MySejahtera to track the location of these foreign workers so that those who fled from their employers (employers who do not have any record of maid abuse offences) will face the law,” he added.

He said the blacklisting approach (by JIM) is not as effective as some errant foreign workers who commit the act of abscondment would continue to stay and work in the country for up to six years and return to their homeland after paying their compound.

To address the issue of abscondment of foreign workers without valid reasons, Hishamuddin said the government should tighten laws in addition to issuing them with stern warnings.

He said cases of maids running away from their workplace are brought about by the fact that some foreign workers enter the country to work as maids as this is the easiest way to obtain work permits.

“These foreign workers enter the country as maids for purposes of obtaining their visa and work permit.  Once the work permit is obtained, the maid will run away as she does not want to stay in other people's house as she wants the freedom to work in other sectors as cleaner, salon and restaurant worker.

“But their visa states that they are hired as maids, contrary to the job they are doing. They have breached their work permit provisions as the easiest way to get a work pass is by working as maids,” he said, adding that foreign workers should be given stern warning that they cannot indiscriminately change jobs as it is an offence under Section 39B of the Immigration Act for abusing their work permits.

Hishamuddin said maids who wish to change their jobs, say as cleaner are required to return to their homeland and cancel their pass or permit first and later make a new application for a new job.

“Employers who have been cheated by maids who escaped can lodge a complaint to JIM to cancel their employment pass and blacklist them,” he said.

Human trafficking should not be viewed lightly as it is the third largest crime in the world behind drugs and arms trafficking.