THE Human Resources Ministry will soon discuss with the Home Ministry how to respond to Indonesia’s decision to temporarily halt sending workers to Malaysia.

“The discussion will focus on ways to handle the issue of Indonesian migrant workers into Malaysia.

“This is after Indonesia decided to freeze migrant workers from entering the country,” it said in a brief statement.

Earlier today, Malaysiakini quoted the republic’s ambassador to Malaysia, Hermano as saying that 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 was quoted as saying by the news portal.

Hermano added that all recruitment agencies in Indonesia had been informed yesterday and will comply with the directive.

The diplomat 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 memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the two countries.

“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, the Malaysian and Indonesian governments reached an agreement on the final draft of an MOU on the placement and protection of Indonesian domestic workers in Malaysia.

Indonesia’s Manpower Ministry said the deadline for signing the agreement between ministers 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 covering workers’ recruitment, preparation, departure to placement and return, to be monitored by the Indonesian government. – July 13, 2022.