Asia Times: Malaysian households a living hell for migrant workers



	February 26, 2000	atimes.com

Southeast Asia

Malaysian households a living hell for migrant workers
By Anil Netto

PENANG, Malaysia - She came to Malaysia to earn an honest living, but Indonesian domestic worker Kusiah Manijan now lies in hospital with a fractured skull, breathing by means of a respirator, after being attacked by her employer. She is the latest in a series of cases of abuse of domestic workers.

Thirty-two year old Kusiah, from central Java, suffered serious head injuries from being struck on the forehead with a hard object after a series of misunderstandings with her employer. Police recovered a stone the size of a fist during a search of the employer's house and have obtained a court order to remand the employer, a 44-year-old homemaker, to assist in investigations.

Meanwhile, Kusiah drifts in and out of consciousness after recent surgery at the Ipoh city hospital. In addition to her head injuries she has badly scarred hands, swellings on her legs, and injuries and scars on her abdomen and back. She is also said to be suffering from malnutrition.

Before Kusiah's assault hit the headlines, two similar cases of abuse had ignited much debate and soul-searching in recent weeks.

''Where has this psychology of abuse crept in?'' asks Prema Devaraj, a massage therapist who volunteers at a crisis center for women. ''If you don't like somebody, just fire them. What is this slapping and hitting and assault? It's like a torture chamber out there.''

Malaysia is temporary home to some 150,000 to 200,000 legal foreign domestic workers, the majority from Indonesia and the remainder mainly from the Philippines. ''Most of them come from poor families and are uneducated,'' Immigration Department enforcement director Nasir Ahmad is quoted as saying. ''They come here to earn some money. So even though they are tortured they still want to continue working.''

But while the media have highlighted these cases of abuse, they have not dwelt on the root cause of the problem - the systematic denial of basic rights for foreign domestic workers and the lack of legal protection for them.

In most cases, it is their poverty that traps domestic workers in what at worst is a form of legalized slavery. In return for wages that hover around the poverty line (300-600 ringgit monthly, or $80-$160), they sacrifice most of their individual rights.

Although both employer and maid sign an agreement that covers basic terms, it can be so vaguely worded that it accords little protection for the migrant worker. Filipino maids are more fortunate as the Philippine government has worked out with Kuala Lumpur a number of provisions, including a minimum wage and Sundays off.

In many households, domestic workers are expected to work or be on call from dawn to dusk with little rest in between. They usually do not eat at the same time or at the same table as the rest of the household, and when they do, many are likely to get the leftovers. Most employers bar their female domestic workers from going out alone - with the usual reason being that they could get involved with men and create ''problems''. Some workers do not get a weekly day off.

In many cases, the maids' passports are in someone else's possession, further trapping them in their place of employment.

Curiously, in each of the three high-profile abuse cases reportedly recently, the perpetrators of violence were all women. This ties in with findings of the All Women's Society of Malaysia (AWAM), which reported that 90 percent of the cases it came across involved women abusers. That's not surprising, given that it is women who usually supervise the maids at home.

''I just wonder why people are treating them so badly,'' says Devaraj. ''Just because you hire them as domestic help doesn't mean they are your slaves to abuse.'' In other professions, employees do not have to tolerate this kind of abuse or denial of basic rights, she points out. ''If a teacher makes a mistake, the school head doesn't whack them or burn them with a hot iron.''

While physical abuse of domestic workers happens in many other countries, critics say Malaysia could easily improve working conditions and protection for the army of domestic workers. In Malaysia, migrant workers are often referred to in the media as ''aliens'', fuelling their alienation and discrimination against them. In contrast, however, foreigners holding well-paid jobs are referred to as ''expatriates''.

Barred from joining Malaysian trade unions, migrant workers are left with little protection from exploitation and abuse. Domestic workers are a particularly vulnerable group: isolated in their employers' homes in a strange country, denied peer support from their families and other maids, they become easy targets for abusive employers.

International human rights treaties are supposed to offer far-reaching protection, but crucial ones do not have enough political support to be enforced. Only 12 countries have ratified the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families. That is eight short of the 20 needed for the Convention, which was approved in 1990 by the UN General Assembly, to enter into force.

A global campaign is now underway to get the Convention ratified, but progress has been snail-paced due to fears by some countries that it could encourage permanent migration or lead to the provision of services to migrant workers.

While the Convention remains unratified, activists say, host countries which find foreign workers useful should apply local labor laws to them. ''Foreign workers should be covered under the [Malaysian] Employment Act and labor laws,'' says Devaraj. ''There should be a much more professional contract which talks about off-days, fixed hours, medical insurance, and a termination clause, so that both sides can terminate a contract if they are unhappy.''

(Inter Press Service)

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