Indonesian Maids Coming By Early March To Malaysia

JAKARTA, Dec 2 (Bernama) -- Indonesia Thursday officially withdrew its moratorium on sending housemaids to Malaysia, but said it would take at least another three months before the first batch of maid arrives in Malaysia. Indonesian Minister of Manpower and Transmigration, Muhaimin Iskandar who made the announcement on lifting the temporary ban said the period was required to carry out all processes involved in this informal sector, in accordance with the stipulated regulations. "On Thursday, the Indonesian govermment officially withdrew the moratorium, but the process of placement takes time and the maids can only be sent to Malaysia by early March, 2012," he said in a statement Thursday. Muhaimin said the placement of Indonesian maids in Malaysia would be entirely up to the employment agencies as the implementing agencies of private Indonesian manpower (PPTKIS), according to the regulations. The period of three months is to enable the PPTKIS to supply the candidates from the requests made, to recruit and provide 200 hours of training, to process the official documents and to despatch the maids to Malaysia. Muhaimin said the Indonesian government would be monitoring closely all the processes involved and would not hesitate to withdraw the operation licence of any employment agency found flouting the regulations. "At least 117 PPTKIS are prepared to send Indonesian maids to work in Malaysia. "They have signed a contract to incorporate the details of the amended memorandum of understanding between Indonesia and Malaysia on the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Domestic Workers," he said. The minister also clarified that according to the regulations, there were 15 levels of placement processes that were compulsory for the workers and employment agencies, including obtaining a letter of recruitment issued by his ministry. "The recruitment process will take three weeks, candidate document preparation (one week), medical examination (two days), 200 hours' of training (three to four weeks), passport application (one week), delivery of candidate biodata to Malaysian agency (three days) and employer search (one month)," he said. -- BERNAMA