Indonesia-Malaysia finalise MoU on protection of migrant domestic workers

Jakarta, January 24 (ANTARA) - The Indonesian and Malaysian governments agreed to the final draft of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on the recruitment and protection of Indonesian migrant workers as domestic workforces in Malaysia. "The Malaysian government also agreed to the MoU draft, and the agreement will be signed by both countries soon," Minister of Manpower Ida Fauziyah noted in her written statement received in Jakarta on Monday. Fauziyah had earlier hosted Malaysia's Minister of Human Resources, Saravanan Murugan, at her office in Jakarta, and the ministers had expressed their mutual agreement to the MoU during the meeting. The minister noted that the MoU would provide the basis for the protection of Indonesian migrant workers in Malaysia. The MoU encompasses clauses regarding the penalty for employers and recruitment agents, who violated the migrant work contract, and will stop the online maid recruitment scheme and deter the illegal conversion of visit visa into working visa, she added. "We agree that the one channel system scheme (enacted by the MoU) will be the only legal channel to recruit Indonesian migrant workers as domestic workers," Fauziyah remarked. The one-channel system scheme integrates Indonesia's migrant worker service application SIAPKerja and Malaysia's Foreign Workers Centralised Management System, the minister noted. Implementation of the single-channel system will ease authority control on migrant workers and address matters related to the recruitment and placement costs levied on migrant workers upon their arrival in Malaysia, she remarked. "We are optimistic that the single-channel system would also handle the number of illegal Indonesian migrant workers," the minister stated. Meanwhile, Minister Saravanan spoke of having agreed to the MoU draft and expressed optimism that the agreement would be signed soon. He is also sanguine that the MoU on Indonesian migrant workers in Malaysia would boost economic recovery sought by the Malaysian government. "The Malaysian government is optimistic that completion of the MoU would also boost our national economic recovery," Saravanan remarked.