KUALA LUMPUR: The Human Resources Ministry is studying the possibility of reducing the cost of bringing in Indonesian domestic workers into the country.
Its minister V. Sivakumar acknowledged that the high cost of RM15,000 for a domestic worker was a problem, and said the negotiations with the Indonesian government on domestic workers through a working committee were still ongoing.
"We are still in discussions to resolve this problem, (and) the cost of hiring Indonesian domestic workers is one of the issues that we are still looking into.
"The working committee consisting of Malaysia and Indonesia is still discussing this and trying to reduce the cost," he said after launching the International Public Employment Forum 2023, organised by the Social Security Organisation here, today.
On claims that the Indonesian government was planning a temporary freeze on sending its citizens to work in Malaysia, Sivakumar said they had not received any feedback on the matter.
He added that any development regarding the recruitment of Indonesian domestic workers would be made public.
"I have not received any feedback from Indonesia on this matter. So far, the status quo remains.
"But if there are any developments, I will make a statement."
Previously, Berita Harian reported that there had been delays in the procedures to apply for an Indonesian domestic worker in the country.
The Malay daily said out of the 81,129 applications in the past year involving these domestic helpers, only 4,400 applications had been approved by Malaysia.
Of the total number of applications approved, around 2,300 had arrived and are currently working in the country.