KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian National Association of Employment Agencies (Pikap) is calling upon the government to clarify its new maid recruiting policy.
Pikap president Datuk Raja Zulkepley Dahalan said there will be more negative outcomes with the implementation of the new system.
"The maid recruiting process is not as easy as what most might people think. If one were to go to Indonesia for example to recruit a maid, who should they meet?
"They can't simply go to the villages and find a maid for themselves. They might be nabbed for human trafficking at the end of the day," he said in a press conference.
Raja Zulkepley said he had contacted his counterparts from nine source countries and all of them were not supportive of this new recruitment policy.
"We want to ask the government if this particular policy has been endorsed by the source nations.
"From the feedback that we have gathered, none of them have been informed and endorsed the policy which is taking place soon," he said.
Raja Zulkepley also commented that it was impossible for the cost to be reduced by 50 per cent.
"To recruit a maid, the agency has to look at the biodata of the potential maids. Each biodata will cost around RM10,000 and that does not include the other documentation which will cost another RM4,000," he said.
He said most of the source countries would never allow their citizens to work abroad as a maid without assurance of their welfare.
"In most of the cases, these maids have been abused or cheated. There were a lot of cases where their salary was not paid for more than three months or they were sexually abused.
"If they were recruited using a legitimate main agency, their welfare will be taken care of," he said.
He said Pikap was upset that the government did not engage with stakeholders before announcing such policy.
Also present was Indonesian Manpower Service Association general-secretary Kausar N. Tanjung, who echoed the opinion of Raja Zulkepley.
"We were shocked to learn about the Malaysian government's new policy. We were also upset that we were not called to share our opinion on this matter," he said.
Meanwhile, Raja Zulkepley added that he wishes to sit down and discuss about this policy with the government.
"We hope that the government will engage with the relevant stakeholders before implementing this new policy," he said.
During the tabling of the 2018 Budget on Friday, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak announced that employers could opt to hire maids directly from Indonesia, the Philippines, Cambodia, India, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Thailand, Nepal and Laos.