MORE THAN 18,000 RUNAWAY MAIDS AS AT DECEMBER LAST YEAR

KUALA LUMPUR, June 21 (Bernama) -- A total of 18,716 foreign maids ran away
from their employers during the whole of 2010, the House of Representatives was
told Tuesday.

Human Resource Deputy Minister Maznah Mazlan said, 17,205 or 92.3
per cent of them were from Indonesia.

"Indonesian maids comprised 76.7 per cent of the total 247,069 foreign maid
population in Malaysia as at December 2010," she said replying to Lim Lip Eng, a
member of parliament.

Maznah said the government had taken steps to resolve the issue including
signing the amended protocol on the Memorandum of Understanding between Malaysia
and Indonesia in Bandung, Indonesia on May 30.

The protocol would protect the interests and welfare of both the employers
and maids, she said.

Under the protocol, an employer was entitled to a replacement without
any charge if the maid ran away within six months of employment, she said.

Maznah also said the immigration's biometric system, implemented since June
1, could assist in tracing runaway maids if they tried to seek employment in
Malaysia again.

Since March 2010, 89 seminars and dialogues had been organised and it had
been attended by 1,869 employers, 1,650 maids and 365 agencies, she added.