Respect your migrant worker

Not a week or day goes by that Tenaganita doesn't come across cases where a migrant or domestic worker's right has been violated.

There is also a string of other abuses. Most of them involve women, from sex workers to people living with HIV and AIDS, single mothers to trafficked women, and more.

Will this ugly side of our familiar Malaysian headlines ever end? Why do we treat domestic workers so poorly and outrageously?

These are some of the questions I recently put forward to Aegile Fernandez. She is the person in charge of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Unit in Tenaganita.

The non-profit NGO – which largely champions the rights of women and migrant workers – is based in Petaling Jaya in the state of Selangor.

It was set up in 1991, out of the struggles of women workers in the plantations and the industrial sector.

Fernandez addressed my questions by focusing on the real-life stories of the people her organisation helps to empower. 

Yanti, for instance, worked for a Malaysian employer for five years.

Although she had to work in the wee hours of the day, she wasn't paid a salary or given a day off.

This went on for some time until Yanti could not take it any longer. She threatened suicide if she was not sent home.

Her employer finally paid her RM2,000. Yanti's agent took her to Johor and forced her to swim to the boat. Unable to swim, she struggled for her dear life in the sea.

The next thing Yanti recalled was waking up on the seashore, covered with banana leaves. A kind stranger gave her food and sent her to Tenaganita.

Yanti never got her five years' salary from her employer. She returned to her home country empty-handed. On arrival, her family was shocked to see her as they thought she had died.

Her husband had remarried by then. Her house was in ruins. Her employer had refused to allow her to contact her family during the five years.

"Yanti's is only one story among many others who have suffered – and still suffer – horrific abuses and torture at the hands of their employers," Fernandez pointed out.

"Domestic work is not considered as a 'real job', so domestic workers are called 'maids', 'servants'  or 'household helpers'."

Fernandez went on to explain that about 300,000 domestic workers do not have any protection measures in Malaysia. Almost all of them have their passports held by the employer, thus holding them at ransom. 

Furthermore, no contracts are signed. No paid day off in a week. The first six to nine months of work salary is paid to the agent as "his earnings".

Long hours of work and double or triple jobs means a maid also has to clean other family members' houses or business outlets. The highest number of cases related to domestic workers in Malaysia involve unpaid wages as well as physical and sexual abuse.

Fernandez also pointed out that there is a growing number of children being brought in to work as domestic workers.

Rubina (not her real name) was only 14 when she was brought to Malaysia by a so-called uncle on a tourist visa.

She was then sent out to work with a family who had three small children. Rubina had to do the housework and care for the children.  Even though she was denied her salary for two years, she was made to work long hours and physically abused.

One day the female employer and her husband beat her up. They also sexually abused her by inserting foreign objects into her vagina.

In severe pain, Rubina begged them to stop. Bleeding profusely, she managed to run to a nearby shop for help.

Fortunately an Indonesian worker rushed her to the hospital. She was warded for five months.

The doctors declared it was a miracle that Rubina managed to survive the trauma.

Today, at 17 years of age and still a child, Rubina's life remains shattered and broken.

"It is unthinkable that any parent of children of their own like her abuser can inflict such a dastardly act on another child and in their own home," said Fernandez with a shiver.

"Not only foreigners but Malaysians in our own country have suffered – and continue to suffer silently – working as domestic workers."

Fernandez said it is most disappointing that until today, the issue of Malaysian domestic workers has not been addressed by our relevant authorities. This leaves no protection mechanisms in place for their safety.

"It is no wonder then why Malaysians do not want to work as 'live-in domestic workers', but rather prefer to work only a few hours in a day or part-time in households.

Fernandez offers the following suggestions, particularly for employers: 

* Passports to be held by your domestic worker.

* One paid day off for your domestic worker.

* A standardised contract signed between you and your domestic worker.

* Open a bank account and bank in her salary every month.

* Respect her as a PERSON and give her DIGNITY.

For more information contact Tenaganita at Tel: +603 7770 3691 / 7770 3671 Fax: +603 7770 3681 

General enquiries: [email protected]. – January 26, 2015.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.