Abuse of maids in Malaysia slammed

Abuse of maids in Malaysia slammed

Agencies, Jakarta/Kuala Lumpur

Thousands of Indonesian maids in Malaysia are victims of physical and mental abuse and are denied basic rights, with scant legal protection, a human rights group said on Wednesday.

The U.S.-based Human Rights Watch said many maids were raped or assaulted, worked up to 18 hours a day, seven days a week and denied even their meagre pay of less than $0.25 an hour.

Nisha Varia, researcher in the group's women's rights division, urged the Indonesian and Malaysian governments to alter their labor laws to protect home workers.

"We're especially concerned about Malaysia because of the systemic problems. For example, the exclusion of domestic workers from any type of legal protection is of great concern," she told a news conference.

Last year, 18,000 domestic workers left their employers in Malaysia, she said.

Labor-starved Malaysia employs about 240,000 maids, more than 90 percent from neighboring Indonesia, Human Rights Watch said.

Others come from the Philippines, Cambodia and Sri Lanka.

Most maids are confined to their workplace and their salary is often withheld until the end of the standard two-year contract, after which most are never paid in full and have little chance of redress, it said.

Many also suffer psychological, physical and sexual assault by labor agents and employers, according to the report.

Human Rights Watch noted that Malaysia's laws excluded domestic workers from most labor protection while Indonesia still has no specific laws protecting migrant workers, leaving the task to agencies which control most aspects of the migration and placement process.

Labor agents in Indonesia often subject prospective workers to extortion, discriminatory hiring processes and months-long confinement in overcrowded training centers while those in Malaysia turn a deaf ear to complaints of abusive treatment and pleas to return home, it said.

The group based its findings and estimates on 115 interviews with maids, officials and others in Indonesia and Malaysia.

A Malaysian minister ruled out any legal changes.

"No country has that kind of law. Maids are very personal and they are part of the family. The normal law is enough if there is a report of abuse," Home Affairs Minister Azmi Khalid told Reuters.

"Less than 1 percent of maids are subjected to physical abuse," he added.

A recent abuse scandal trained the spotlight on the plight of Indonesian maids after newspapers carried pictures of a bruised and burnt teenager allegedly branded with a hot iron and scalding water by her Malaysian employer.

The Bernama news agency reported on Tuesday that Malaysia, the second-largest employer of Indonesian maids after Saudi Arabia, is working on a memorandum of understanding with Indonesia to improve working conditions of foreign maids.

In Jakarta on Wednesday, Manpower Minister Jacob Nuwa Wea said Indonesia had worked for increased legal protection for its workers in neighboring Malaysia.

"The majority of cases found in Kuala Lumpur are about illegal workers and those people who do not have skills," he said on a television talk show.

In Hong Kong, foreign domestic workers are protected by a mandatory minimum wage and are entitled to a day off each week.

But representatives groups say the real situation faced by many is quite different and difficult.

Many do not get the minimum wage and are too fearful to complain. That minimum was also cut last year as the government tried to ease the effects of a drawn out economic slowdown.