40,000 Philippines maids brought into Malaysia last year

The Malaysian Association of Employment Agencies (Pikap) has brought in about 40,000 domestic maids from the Philippines last year to accommodate requests from locals.

Its president, Datuk Raja Zulkepley Dahalan told Bernama that prior to that, only about 7,000 domestic maids from the republic were brought to work in the country.

He attributed the increase to the cost set by the government for hiring of Indonesian maids and the ban imposed by the Cambodian government for its people to be employed as domestic maids in Malaysia.

Last year, the government set the cost of hiring Indonesian maids at RM8,000, which according to Raja Zulkepley was not a reasonable rate.

He said the cost should be determined by the market.

"Why the need to fix the cost for hiring maids from Indonesia, when the cost for hiring maids from the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Vietnam is determined by the market," he added.

He said Malaysia needed about 90,000 domestic maids a year.

Pikap has 240 members and they are registered with the Manpower Department and the Immigration Department