Cambodia to resume sending maids to Malaysia

Cambodia to resume sending maids to Malaysia

The Malaysian Insider | 12 December 2015 

 

A domestic helper at work in Malaysia. Maids from Cambodia have been banned since 2011, but a new deal will see their return to the country. – The Malaysian Insider file pic, December 11, 2015.​ 

 

Malaysia and Cambodia have agreed to resume supplying Cambodian maids to the country, four years after the Phnom Penh banned the practice following reports of exploitation and torture at the hands of Malaysian employers.

According to a report by The Cambodia Daily, the Labour Ministry in a statement released on Thursday said a memorandum of understanding (MoU) has been signed along with a second agreement to protect other Cambodian labourers working in Malaysia.

"The two parties agreed… to have specialist officials of both countries meet soon to prepare action plans to implement the MoUs (and) produce a system to manage labourers electronically," it said in the report.
The paper said a MoU had been in the works for at least two years, with Cambodia asking for greater protection of its maids. In October, the Malaysian Court of Appeal sentenced a couple to death for the murder of their Cambodian maid, whom they starved to death three years ago.

Mey Sichan, 24, had been working for the couple since September 2011. She was found dead in a storeroom on the second floor of a shophouse in Taman Asas Murni, Jalan Bukit Minyak, on April 1, 2012.

Mey, who was 148cm tall, weighed 26.1kg at the time of death.

Evidence during trial revealed Mey was denied food over a long period of time. She had also sustained injuries that were inflicted over time, which further aggravated a gastric ulcer that led to acute peritonitis and caused her death.

"As far as I know, I believe [Kuala Lumpur] accepted everything proposed by Cambodia, but I have not seen the signed MoU and I have no details of it, so I cannot say for sure," Tun Sophorn, national coordinator for the International Labour Organisation, was quoted as saying.

"I met with (Labour Minister Ith Sam Heng) on Tuesday before he went to Malaysia and he is very satisfied with the MoU."

Official channels for sending domestic workers to Malaysia were closed in 2011. However, women have reportedly continued travelling to Malaysia illegally. – December 12, 2015.