‘Govt trades away rights for money’

NGO Tenaganita claims the government believes the lives of domestic workers should not be placed in the hands of recruitment companies who are key culprits in violating domestic workers' rights.

PETALING JAYA: The government has been chided by Tenaganita for remaining complicit on violence against domestic workers.

Its executive director Irene Fernandez said that both the Malaysian and Indonesian governments have demonstrated that they believe the lives of Indonesian women should be placed in the hands of agents and recruitment companies.

This was illustrated when both governments agreed for recruitment agents to be given the power to resolve deep-rooted issues surrounding the recruitment of domestic workers.

According to recent newspaper reports, both governments maintain that market forces should determine the recruitment and wages of domestic workers.

“How can money be the deciding factor when this entire process affects the rights and lives of women?

“Are domestic workers now on sale to be traded as commodities to the highest bidder sanctioned and approved by the Indonesian and Malaysian governments?” said Fernandez in a statement.

She added it was important to realise how recruitment agents have been key culprits in violating the rights of domestic workers.

“They have falsified the age of young girls so that they can work as domestic workers, they have stripped and searched domestic workers upon arrival in Malaysia to ensure they do not have information of support services or organisations, among other atrocities.

“To say that there are good recruitment agents is to deflect from the violence embedded in the system, the tacit approval granted to agents and employers to do as they wish with the women working in their homes,” she said.

According to Fernandez, Tenaganita received 313 cases involving domestic workers between 2012 and 2013, with over 1200 forms of rights violations including non-payment of wages.

Other cases such as withholding of passports, isolation, denied the right to communicate with anyone out of the home, physical, verbal and sexual violence, food deprivation and forced extension of contract were also reported.

“This information has been consistently shared with the Malaysian and Indonesian governments for the past five years, yet it is still money that drives their decisions,” she said.

She added that the end to forms of slavery and violence against domestic workers can only be realised when governance of recruitment and placement of domestic workers is determined by recognising domestic work as work.

“Fundamental rights of domestic workers must also be protected and the government must ensure a system of employment where there is decent wage and decent work.

“Women’s bodies are not commodities to be traded. The work of domestic workers needs to be valued and respected. Governments who fail in doing that must face the severest consequences of their actions,” she said.