KUCHING: The temporary freeze on Indonesian workers entering the country will not cause major issues to various industries in Sarawak.
Premier of Sarawak Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg said the ban would affect Sarawak as well since it was a national policy.
“I was made to understand (by the Consulate General of Indonesia in Sarawak) that there weren’t many problems in Sarawak,” he said.
“But, since it is a national policy we are somehow affected as well,” he told the reporters today officiating the National Anti-Drug Day and the Keluarga Malaysia Direct From Farm Sale Programme in Gedong here today.
Abang Johari also said the ban was on domestic workers or maids from Indonesia, thus, the other industries, including the construction, were doing fine thus far.
He was asked to comment on the temporary freeze on Indonesian workers in all sectors in Malaysia, effective on July 13.
According to Indonesian ambassador to Malaysia Hermono, this was due to a breach of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between both countries on the import of domestic workers from the republic.
On the MoU breach by Malaysia, Hermano said the Immigration Department’s continued use of the Maid Online System (MOS) in the recruitment of their workers was a breach of the MoU.
The agreement, he said, stipulated that the hiring of workers would go through the One Channel System introduced under the MoU to protect the welfare of domestic workers.
He claimed Indonesia had evidence that the MOS system, which the republic and activists had opposed due to its alleged lack of protection for workers, was still in operation.
