Indonesia lifts labour freeze against Malaysia
Indonesia has lifted the temporary ban on its workers seeking employment in Malaysia and recruitment can resume from Aug 1, said its Manpower Minister Ida Fauziyah.
In a joint media statement with Human Resources Minister M Saravanan, she said the temporary freeze was lifted upon an agreement between the two ministries that the...
Indonesia has lifted the temporary ban on its workers seeking employment in Malaysia and recruitment can resume from Aug 1, said its Manpower Minister Ida Fauziyah.
In a joint media statement with Human Resources Minister M Saravanan, she said the temporary freeze was lifted upon an agreement between the two ministries that the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on the Recruitment and Protection of Domestic Workers would be implemented effectively.
In a separate statement, Saravanan urged employers whose quota applications had been approved by his ministry, to make their levy payments with the Immigration Department immediately.
Malaysia’s breach in the terms of the domestic worker MOU was the main cause for its breakdown a little over 100 days after it was signed which led to the imposition of a temporary labour freeze by Indonesia against Malaysia on July 13.
The two ministers were part of the first Joint Working Group tasked by the MOU to meet once every three months to weed out implementation issues.
While there are no changes to the MOU, the meeting had agreed to the existing online system managed by Malaysia’s Immigration Department to be the official portal for the recruitment of Indonesian domestic workers into the country.
This portal would be integrated with the existing online system managed by the Indonesian Mission in Malaysia and this online integration would form the One Channel System.
Both ministers reconfirmed that the One Channel System, introduced in the MOU, would be the sole mechanism for the recruitment and placement of Indonesian domestic workers in Malaysia.
Although the statement did not reveal the name of the portal being put forward by Malaysia to be integrated into the One Channel System, yesterday, the Indonesian Ambassador to Malaysia, Hermono, revealed that the Immigration Department’s Maid Online System (MOS) would shed its current ‘bad habits’ and fully comply with MOU terms in order to be integrated into the One Channel System.
Ida and Saravanan had tasked a joint technical team to immediately commence the process of system integration which was to be fully operational in three weeks.
Pilot project
Both ministers had agreed on a three-month pilot project to ensure the smooth application and reliability of the integrated system.
Their statement said the pilot project would be carried out prior to the full application of the systems under the One Channel System.
Since the inking of the MOU and before its breakdown, only 16 domestic worker applications had been processed manually by the Indonesian embassy but none of the workers had arrived in Malaysia yet.
Meanwhile, Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin urged plantation industry players yesterday to hire foreign labour from other countries instead of relying on labour from Indonesia and Bangladesh.
She said countries such as Pakistan, India, and Afghanistan could be labour options that the plantation sector should explore in the near future.
Currently, Malaysia lacks at least 1.2 million workers across manufacturing, plantation and construction, a shortage worsening daily as demand grows, industry and government data show.
About 20,000 applications for workers intended for various sectors in Malaysia were put on hold when the labour freeze against Malaysia was imposed early this month.
More bilateral engagement
The ministers agreed that more bilateral engagements between the two ministries would be held to overcome outstanding labour issues especially the acceleration of deportation of undocumented migrants.
Their statement said they would jointly address the rapid deportation of Indonesian migrant workers, especially those who belonged to vulnerable groups.
They acknowledged the importance of combating people trafficking and were committed to engaging related stakeholders in their respective countries to establish concrete bilateral cooperation.
The two ministers also touched on the cooperation between the social security agencies in Malaysia and Indonesia with the aim to strengthen protection for Indonesian migrant workers.
Top representatives from both ministries, Malaysia’s Immigration Department and Indonesia’s Mission in Malaysia formed part of this Joint Working Group and discussions agreed upon were signed by ministry representatives, while Ida and Saravanan looked on.
For Malaysia, the Human Resources Ministry deputy secretary-general of operations, Muhd Khair Razman Mohamed Annuar and for Indonesia, the Labour Ministry’s director general for placement of Indonesian migrant workers, Suhartono were the signatories.
Also present were Malaysia’s Immigration Department director-general Khairul Dzaimee Daud and Hermono who would oversee the portals under their respective purview, for the integration into the One Channel System.
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