This report gives a detailed description of the conditions that migrant domestic workers experience from the time of their recruitment in Indonesia to the time of their return from Malaysia, illustrating the abuses they endured abroad. The report draws on 115 interviews with female domestic workers and government officials from Indonesia and Malaysia as well as several months of background research. The report concludes that Indonesian migrant workers in Malaysia are systematically discriminated against, exploited and abused by labour agents and employers. Recommendations are made to both Indonesia and Malaysia governments for curbing systematic abuses of domestic workers.
Irregular migrant flows from Indonesia to Malaysia are the second largest in the world, and most Indonesian domestic workers migrate to Malaysia out of financial necessity. Licensed and unlicensed recruiters facilitate the migration by extorting money, falsifying travel documents and making misleading statements to women and girls about work arrangements. Labour rights abuses are pervasive in many forms, which are reinforced by failings in both countries: Indonesia does not have an adequate system for monitoring labour recruitment agencies and training centres, and Malaysia’s employment laws do not provide protection to domestic workers.
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