INDONESIA has imposed a temporary freeze on all workers entering Malaysia due to breach in the memorandum of understanding (MOU) on domestic workers signed between the two countries three months ago.

According to Malaysiakini, the republic’s ambassador to Malaysia, Hermano said an official communication on the matter was sent to Human Resources Minister M Saravanan yesterday.

“The minister has been informed of our intentions to reinstate a temporary freeze on recruitment of Indonesian labour into all sectors in Malaysia effective immediately,” he said as quoted by the news portal.

Hermano added that all recruitment agencies in Indonesia were informed yesterday and will comply to the directive.

Speaking further, Hermano said Indonesia has solid evidence that Putrajaya has been using the Maid Online System (MOS) in the recruitment of Indonesian domestic workers, which was a breach of the MOU.

“We have solid proof that the Immigration Department, under the Home Affairs Ministry, continued to use the MOS to facilitate the recruitment of Indonesian domestic workers into Malaysia,” he said.

In March, Malaysian and Indonesian governments reached an agreement on the final draft of a memorandum of understanding on the placement and protection of Indonesian domestic workers in Malaysia. 

Indonesia’s Manpower Ministry said the schedule for signing the agreement between minister Ida Fauziyah and Saravanan is being determined.

The MOU agreed on salaries, weekly and annual leave entitlements, a ban on withholding passports, the right to communicate and only one domestic worker per household of six people.

The “one channel system” will be introduced to integrate the domestic worker placement process from recruitment, preparation and departure to placement and return monitored by the government.

Hermano said all new applications would be put on hold along with 15,000-20,000 applications previously received.

He confirmed that applications for domestic workers had only reached 16 but none have arrived in Malaysia after the April 1 MOU signing.

A special committee headed by the secretaries-general of both countries’ ministries will meet once every three months to monitor the implementation of the MOU. – July 13, 2022.