Govt urged to allow female illegals to work as maids

A lawmaker today proposed that illegal female foreign migrants already in this country be allowed to be hired as domestic maids to reduce the problem of illegals.

Dr Siti Mariah Mahmud (PAS-Kota Raja) said this measure could also help solve the short supply but high demand for maids, which would also indirectly increase the nation's income.

"Let them (female illegals) be hired directly, and not through agents while the other payments can be made directly to the government, thus to a certain extent, solve the problem of too many illegals in this country.

"This way, they will be legalised and have employers responsible over them," she said when debating on the 11th Malaysia Plan in the Dewan Rakyat Tuesday.

Dr Mariah said this measure would also benefit the goverment and employers who would not need to bear the usual costs in hiring maids.

She suggested that this group be documented to enable them to work legally in this country, and Malaysia would not need to bring in more foreign maids.

"We do not ask that they be made permanent residents or citizens, but only for their presence in this country to be documented.

"When they have identification documents, the government can keep a data base on them (for monitoring)," she said.

The Dewan Rakyat sitting continues today.