12,000 maids escape from their Malaysian employers

MANILA, Philippines - More than 12,000 foreign domestics, including Filipinos, escaped from their employers last year through the help of syndicates, the Borneo Post Online reported on Tuesday. The report quoted Malaysian Deputy Home Minister Datuk Chor Chee as saying that the government had identified the syndicate and would go after the masterminds. The official also reportedly said that the maids would be rounded up and deported back to their countries. Borneo Post said that according to Chor, there were 256,097 foreign maids in Malaysia as of June 2008. The domestics came from Indonesia, the Philippines, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam, India, Nepal, and Laos. Chor was also quoted as saying that the problem on runway maids was not only a burden to employers who would be slapped with fines, but to the Malaysian government as well. The report said Malaysia’s Immigration Department met with the Foreign Maid Agencies Association to reduce the fees that would be paid by the employers. However, Borneo Post said the department failed in its effort after Indonesia, which sends the most number of domestics to Malaysia, opposed the move. According to the report, the fees are between RM3,000 to RM5,000, including the levy paid to the government, and that the department wanted the fees slashed to RM2,000. - GMANews.TV