Ministry Of Foreign Affairs: Indonesia Never Approved Malaysia's Online Maid System

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Foreign Affairs emphasized that Indonesia had never approved the online maid system (SMO) that was previously implemented by Malaysia to recruit Indonesian migrant workers (PMI).

The statement was made by the Director of Protection for Indonesian Citizens and BHI at the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Judha Nugraha, to clarify the statement of the Director General of Malaysia which stated that Indonesia had agreed to integrate the one channel system (OCS) with SMO.

"The objections from Indonesia regarding the continuation of the online maid system regarding the recruitment mechanism for PMI to Malaysia because this will make the one-channel system, which has only been agreed upon by the two countries, ineffective," Judha said in an online media briefing, Thursday.

SMO also specifically violates Article 3 of appendix C in the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers in the Domestic Sector in Malaysia, which was signed by the governments of the two countries on April 1, 2022.

"The online maid system will ignore the departure process of our migrant workers according to procedures, including in this case the training process, preparation of work contracts, and documents - so when (they) enter Malaysia using a travel visa that is converted to a work visa, it will make PMI's position vulnerable. exploited,” said Judha.

For this reason, the Indonesian government encourages the two countries to immediately hold a bilateral meeting to find a solution to this problem.

If there is an integration of the migrant worker recruitment system between the two countries, Judha said, it will still refer to the agreement that has been stipulated in the existing MoU.

"The existing system in Malaysia can technically be used as long as it is intended to implement the agreements contained in the MoU," said Judha.

The government decided to temporarily stop the placement of Indonesian migrant workers to Malaysia since July 13, 2022, because Kuala Lumpur violated the MoU on labor that had been agreed upon by the two countries.

The decision was made after the Indonesian representative found some evidence that Malaysia was still implementing SMO, namely a recruitment system that was outside the agreement in the MoU.

The MoU regulates the use of a one-channel system or OCS as a recruitment and monitoring system for PMIs to Malaysia, as well as to provide maximum protection for PMIs.