Indonesia lifts temporary restrictions on maids, labour to M’sia

PUTRAJAYA - Indonesia agrees to lift the temporary restrictions on migrant workers to Malaysia effective Aug 1.

Human Resource Minister Datuk Seri M Saravanan said the matter was agreed upon during his discussions with Indonesian Labour Minister Ida Fauziyah on Wednesday.

"Both Malaysia and Indonesia agreed to integrate the existing system between Immigration Department and the Immigration Embassy to hire Indonesian domestic workers,” he said.

Saravanan said the integration would act as a sole channel for the hiring and entry of workers to Malaysia.

“The system will operate in three weeks under the monitoring of joint working group of both countries,” he said in a statement today.

To ensure that the channel operated smoothly, a pilot project would be conducted for three months once the system integration had been completed.

“Employers who have been approved the quota of foreign workers are urged and reminded to immediately make levy payments with the Immigration Department," he said.

Saravanan said employers who wanted to hire Indonesian workers can make the recruitment arrangements from next Monday.

On April 1, Malaysia and Indonesia signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the hiring and protection of migrant workers in the country.

However, on June 12, the country decided to put a temporary freeze on migrant workers to Malaysia as it claimed that the latter did not respect the MoU.