Malaysia Violates MoU, Indonesia Stops Sending Migrant Workers

ILLUSTRATION VIA ANTARA/HO

JAKARTA - The government has decided to temporarily halt the placement of Indonesian migrant workers (PMI) to Malaysia starting July 13, 2022, because Kuala Lumpur violated the labor memorandum of understanding (MoU) agreed upon by the two countries.

According to the Director of Protection for Indonesian Citizens and Indonesian Legal Entities at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Judha Nugraha, the decision was made after Indonesian representatives found some evidence that Malaysia was still implementing the maid online system (SMO), namely a recruitment system that was outside the agreement in the MoU.

"Specifically, this SMO makes the position of our PMI vulnerable to exploitation because this recruitment mechanism passes Law No. 18 of 2017 concerning the protection of migrant workers ... in the end our PMI who left for Malaysia did not go through legal stages," said Judha as quoted by ANTARA, Thursday, July 14 .

In response to these findings, the Indonesian government decided to temporarily suspend the placement of PMIs to Malaysia until it received clarification from the Malaysian side and a commitment to stop the SMO placement of domestic sector PMIs to the country.

The decision has been officially conveyed by the Indonesian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur to the Malaysian Ministry of Resources, who will soon discuss the issue with the Malaysian Ministry of Home Affairs.

"We expect positive results from these discussions," said Judha.

The MoU on the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers in the Domestic Sector in Malaysia was signed by the governments of the two countries during the visit of Malaysian Prime Minister (PM) Ismail Sabri bin Yaakob to Jakarta on April 1, 2022.

The MoU regulates the use of a one-channel system as a recruitment and monitoring system for PMI to Malaysia, as well as to provide maximum protection for PMI. Given the system that is currently being built, the PMI placement process has not yet been carried out. which was signed last April 1 to abolish other mechanisms besides the one channel system process, has been carried out," he said.