KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia said Wednesday it will set up a task force with Indonesia to look into the grievances of Indonesian domestic workers here and speed up court cases over abuse and non-payment.
Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said the government is optimistic that Indonesia's ban on sending domestic workers to Malaysia, ordered in June after a spate of horrific assaults, will be lifted in the next few months.
He said the task force, which he will head and which will be staffed by officials from both countries, will look at how to expedite cases of non-payment of salaries and mistreatment of maids.
Hishammuddin said his first priority would be to help clear the 140 domestic workers and six children residing in a shelter in the compound of the Indonesian embassy in Kuala Lumpur, who are all waiting for court cases to be resolved.
"These problems, especially those faced by the embassy here, need to be addressed soon, that's why this special task force is being set up," he told reporters.
"The process takes too long sometimes, what we want to do is to expedite the process," he added. "We don't want anyone on Malaysian soil being taken advantage of."
Hishammuddin said the government is optimistic that the Indonesian ban on maids will be lifted soon once the two sides negotiate an agreement on wages and conditions.
"The memorandum is still in discussion, there is still a moratorium at the moment, we hope to resolve that soon within one or two months," he said.
Ambassador Da'i Bachtiar said the number of Indonesian maids working in Malaysia has dropped from 300,000 last year to around 230,000 at present.
The ban was triggered by a string of abuse cases including one where a Malaysian woman was charged with causing grievous bodily harm by beating her Indonesian maid and scalding her with boiling water.
One of Asia's largest importers of labour, Malaysia depends heavily on domestic workers, mainly from Indonesia, but has been criticised for not introducing legislation to enshrine their rights and conditions