Indonesia and Malaysia should reform their labour laws to protect the rights of thousands of Indonesian maids abused and exploited by their employers and labour agencies, an international rights group said today.

More than 90 percent of some 240,000 domestic workers in Malaysia are Indonesians, who typically work sixteen to eighteen hours daily with no rest day and earn less than RM1 an hour, the US-based Human Rights Watch said in a 110-page report released today.

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 labour agents and employers, according to the report.

Human Rights Watch noted that Malaysia's laws excluded domestic workers from most labour 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.

Labour 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.

Second-class humans

"Indonesian domestic workers are treated like second-class humans," said LaShawn R Jefferson, executive director of the women's rights division of Human Rights Watch.

"Malaysia and Indonesia must actively protect the rights of women workers instead of leaving this to labour agencies who are often responsible for committing abuses themselves."

The report hailed efforts by Indonesia and Malaysia to forge a memorandum of understanding to oversee the training, recruitment and employment of Indonesian maids but said it must ensure freedom of movement and provide a standard contract to protect their rights.

It also urged both governments to amend labour laws to strengthen legal protection for the maids, rigorously monitor labour agencies and training centres in Indonesia, and provide quality support services to victims.

Migrant workers worldwide send some US$90 billion back home to developing countries annually, exceeding foreign aid, the report said.

An increasing number of labour migrants are female and in Indonesia, 76 percent of all legal migrant workers in 2002 were women in low-paying, unregulated sectors like domestic work, it said.

The report was released a month after Malaysia was shocked by its worst case of maid abuse, where 19-year-old Indonesian maid Nirmala Bonet was burnt and beaten by a wealthy housewife, who is now facing trial.