By Chen Pelf Yeen

MALACCA, MALAYSIA: Effective next month, you may receive a "friendly" visit from officers of the Immigration and labour departments to check on possible maid abuse.

The officers who conduct these random visits will check on the maids' welfare and working conditions as well as get feedback from the employers on the maids' well-being.

Human Resources Minister Datuk Dr S. Subramaniam said the visits would be friendly in nature, "a public relations exercise" that would be undertaken by officers from the Manpower Department and Home Ministry.

"We will be launching the joint programme on Dec 1 in the Klang Valley and later, throughout the country," he told reporters at the Departmental Training Institutes Convocation ceremony at Ayer Keroh yesterday.

The programme, he added, would serve as a preventive measure against maid abuse as the visits would help detect early signs of abuse. The visits would also serve as a deterrent against maid abuse.

On details of how the visits would be conducted, a ministry official, when contacted, said: "There would be no specific questions for the employer and the maid during the checks as it would only be a friendly home visit."

He also said that the officers would have no power to conduct the random visits at the employers' premises if they are denied entry.

However, employers are not happy about the proposed measure. Businessman Jason Woo said that it would be an invasion of a family's privacy.

"I don't think that it will be effective in stopping employers from abusing their maids. A better method would be to set up a hotline for the maids so that they can have someone to call if they need help," he said.

Mydin managing director Datuk Ameer Ali Mydin agreed that the visits would be a security nightmare.

"We already have people forging identification cards and posing as uniformed personnel to rob, so how can they guarantee that someone will not forge the authorities? ID and masquerade as ministry officials," he argued, adding that most employers would have instructed their maids not to open their doors to strangers.

Ameer Ali believes that enforcement would be problematic as it would be difficult to verify whether a "good employer" was genuine or the maids' claims were true.

"I agree that it is a serious issue but I don't think it warrants this measure," he said.

The Association of Foreign Workers Agency (Papa) said the move demonstrated Malaysia's seriousness in ensuring the well-being of foreign maids here.

"This sends out a strong signal that the Government does not condone the mistreatment of maids. Prosecution against errant employers is another example of how the Government plays fair," said Papa secretary Foo Yap Hooi.

On the shortage of Indonesian maids, Subramaniam said the country might face a slight shortage in the supply following the recent freeze imposed by the Indonesian government in light of recent incidents of maid abuse.

On Oct 20, Indonesian maid Mautik Hani, 36, from Surabaya, was rescued by police from her employer's home toilet where she was locked up for two days and treated for injuries at the Tengku Ampuan Rahimah Hospital in Klang.

She later succumbed to injuries and her employer A. Murugan, 35, a sugarcane juice seller, has been charged with murder at the Sepang magistrate?s court.

"As of last month, we are still getting Indonesian maids whose work permits were approved before the present freeze was imposed.

"We hope to have another meeting with the Indonesians to resolve the matter as fast as we can," he said.

Currently, there are some 280,000 foreign maids working in Malaysia of which Indonesians make up more than 90%; 15,000 are from the Philippines and between 1,000 and 2,000 each from Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam and Cambodia.

Subramaniam said also the ministry is looking into ways to resolve the shortage of workers affecting several major industries in the country owing to improving global market demand.

Among the affected industries, he said, are the electronic, furniture, plastic and gloves manufacturing sectors which are facing a shortfall of about 20,000 workers.