The government will slap a lifetime ban o­n employers who physically abuse their foreign maids and suspend those who fail to pay their domestic helpers' salaries, a report said today.

Immigration Department Director-General Mohamad Jamal Kamdi was quoted as saying by The Star that abusive employees would be barred forever from hiring foreign maids.

Those who failed to pay their maids' salaries would be barred from employing them for o­ne to two years, and employers who emotionally and verbally abused their maids suspended for two to three years, he said.

Concerned with the increasing number of foreign maid abuse cases, Jamal said the move was to uphold the image of Malaysians as caring and responsible employers.

"Although they are maids... employers must treat them with respect," he said.

Five Kuala Lumpur-based employers had been blacklisted last year for mistreating their maids, said Jamal.

A number of cases involving maid abuse highlighted in the local media recently have also caused fresh concern in Malaysia where stories of abused maids are becoming increasingly common.

There are some 200,00 foreigners, mostly Indonesians, who are hired to work as domestic helpers in the country, the daily said. AFP