Indonesia establishes central database for maids

The Indonesian government has established a Central Database of Maids to ease the management and supply of maids to Malaysia, Human Resources Minister S. Subramaniam said.

As such, he said all Indonesian maid agencies were now required to register the personal biodata of the maids with the central database, which would be managed by the government.

He said the system was aimed at eliminating the role of middle men, besides reducing the cost of operations while speeding up the process to send maids to Malaysia.

"The Indonesian government has informed us about the establishment of the Central Database of Maids. So, no more agents will be allowed to get personally involved in the transactions involving maids,” Subramaniam told reporters here.

"After the maids undergo the compulsory training of 200 hours, their personal biodata must be registered at the central database. Then, the data will be given to maid agencies in Indonesia to be forwarded to their counterparts in Malaysia.”

Subramaniam also anticipated that the maid agencies in Malaysia would start receiving the data of the maids by end of this month.

He said the first batch of Indonesian maids were expected to arrive in March.

The deployment of maids from Indonesia was resumed after the Indonesian government withdrew its moratorium on sending maids to Malaysia on Dec. 1, 2011. (mtq)