| Foreign maids in Malaysia
abused: Human Rights Watch |
| โดย Manager
Online |
18 May 2005
23:47 |
 |
May 18,
2005
KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) - Foreign maids in Malaysia
are prey to physical, psychological and sexual abuse because of
flawed government policies, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday.
The
country's 240,000 domestic workers -- more than 90 percent of them
from Indonesia -- should be given the same protection as other
employees, the New York-based group said in a letter to Malaysian
Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad
Badawi.
"Indonesian
domestic workers in Malaysia typically work gruelling 16 to 18 hour
days, seven days a week, and earn less than five dollars a day," it
said, with many employers withholding pay until the end of a
standard two-year
contract.
"In
Malaysia, most domestic workers are forbidden to leave their
workplace and many suffer psychological, physical, and sexual
assault by labour agents and
employers.
"It's
time for Malaysia to clean up its own house by extending labour
protections to domestic workers," said LaShawn R. Jefferson, women's
rights director at Human Rights
Watch.
Malaysia's
labour law, which protects most categories of workers, specifically
excludes domestic workers, the group
said.
Non-governmental
organizations and the Indonesian embassy in Kuala Lumpur have
received thousands of complaints from maids about working
conditions, wages or abuse in the past few years, it
said.
Malaysia
promised last year to create a labour agreement with Indonesia on
migrant domestic workers within a three-month period, but more than
a year had passed with little, if any, progress, the group
said.
It
noted that Malaysia had recently shown interest in recruiting
domestic workers from Cambodia, Sri Lanka and Thailand because
labour agencies have recruited only 12,000 Indonesian domestic
workers in the past six months instead of the typical
60,000.
"The
significantly lower pay and poor working conditions in Malaysia
compared to other common destinations like Singapore and Hong Kong
have fueled the
shortage.
"While
Malaysia excludes domestic workers from most standard labor
protections, Hong Kong ensures domestic workers' rights to rest
days, a minimum wage, limitations on hours of work, and to join
unions.
"Malaysia
is shooting itself in the foot by repeatedly failing to reform its
immigration and labor
policies."
Human
Rights Watch also criticised a crackdown since March 1 which has
seen the arrest of thousands of undocumented migrants, including
refugees.
"Mass
expulsions will not solve illegal immigration. The government must
commit itself to meaningful labor reforms and the prevention of
abuse," the group
said.
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