57,000 foreign maids flee M'sia households

57,000 foreign maids flee M'sia households

Associated Press, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

About 57,000 foreign maids ran away from their Malaysian employers in the past four years, mostly because they despised their chores and were unsatisfied with working conditions, a news report said on Sunday.

Concerns over the mistreatment of foreign maids have surfaced in recent weeks after a Malaysian housewife was charged with burning her Indonesian helper with hot water and an iron in one of the country's worst maid abuse cases.

Malaysia currently employs about 240,000 foreign maids, more than 95 percent of whom are Indonesians. There are also maids from the Philippines, Thailand, Cambodia and Sri Lanka.

Tens of thousands of domestic workers have fled their jobs in recent years, often because they failed to get along with their employers or chafed at being cooped indoors for long hours, said Immigration Director General Jamal Kamdi.

"Many, especially those below 30, do not like to be tied down doing household chores," Jamal was quoted as saying by the Malay- language Berita Minggu newspaper.

"In most cases, they are influenced (to seek other jobs) by their friends who were already working in other sectors."

Jamal stressed, however, that instances of maid abuse were uncommon.

About 160 cases of maid abuse have been reported to the police since 2001.