Report
Malaysia: Review of admission and recruitment practices of Indonesian workers in the plantation and domestic work sectors and related recommendations
Indonesian workers have provided the bulk of the workforce for the plantation and the domestic work sectors in Malaysia, thereby making a significant contribution to the Malaysian economy over the years. This study on the admission and recruitment procedures and practices for Indonesian workers in the two sectors notes that there have been positive legal and regulatory developments on labour migration in Malaysia and Indonesia. It also highlights continuing challenges for migration governance and worker protection. In response, the study makes several recommendations to governments of both Malaysia and Indonesia.
The study highlights continuing challenges for migration governance and worker protection including cumbersome formal admission procedures, high recruitment costs, particularly of domestic workers, recruitment malpractices in both countries, ineffective regulation of private recruitment agencies, poor working conditions, limited access to justice for workers, and high incidence of undocumented workers. The lack of reliable information on the working and living conditions of both groups of workers is also a cause for concern.
The study makes several recommendations to governments of both Malaysia and Indonesia: simplification of admission procedures, exploring wider recruitment options, signing of a new MOU for hiring of domestic workers on an urgent basis, extension of Malaysian labour law to domestic workers, issue of regulations to accompany the 2017 Migrant Worker Protection Act of Indonesia, and more effective regulation of recruitment agencies.
The study has been undertaken within the framework of the ILO technical cooperation project “Improving Migration Governance (IMG): Protecting the rights of migrant domestic workers and plantation workers through improved labour migration governance” funded by the United States Department of State, Bureau of Democracy Human Rights and Labor.
The study makes several recommendations to governments of both Malaysia and Indonesia: simplification of admission procedures, exploring wider recruitment options, signing of a new MOU for hiring of domestic workers on an urgent basis, extension of Malaysian labour law to domestic workers, issue of regulations to accompany the 2017 Migrant Worker Protection Act of Indonesia, and more effective regulation of recruitment agencies.
The study has been undertaken within the framework of the ILO technical cooperation project “Improving Migration Governance (IMG): Protecting the rights of migrant domestic workers and plantation workers through improved labour migration governance” funded by the United States Department of State, Bureau of Democracy Human Rights and Labor.