GET MAID’S DETAILS, EMPLOYERS TOLD
Biometric profiles must be recorded at Immigration Department
EMPLOYERS need to identify potential foreign maids before applying for them online. Immigration director-general Datuk Seri Mustafar Ali said employers had to key in the maid’s details in the online system.
“Employers must know who they want to hire (as a maid) and (the maid’s) source country. For instance, if they decide to hire a legal foreigner in the country as a maid, they need to get her personal details.
“The first thing you need to do when you visit the portal is fill up the employer’s pre-registration form. There will be instructions you have to follow step by step.
“The employer will then be required to enter the maid’s information.
“There is also a section on health screening conducted by the Foreign Workers Medical Examination Monitoring Agency,” he told the New Sunday Times.
Mustafar said employers could pay the recruitment cost of RM1,635 after completing the form.
He said employers were required to bring the maid to the Immigration Department to have her biometric profile recorded, after which a special sticker would be placed on her passport.
Mustafar reiterated that employers who wished to employ maids from Indonesia and the Philippines would need to apply with the companies registered with their respective labour ministries.
“Employers are not allowed to take foreign maids from Indonesia and the Philippines directly. They need to go through the registered companies.
“We have to comply with the laws of both countries.”
Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had, on Friday, said employers would be able to enjoy discounts of up to 90 per cent when recruiting foreign maids.
He said employers looking into directly hire foreign maids would only need to pay RM1,635 instead of RM18,000 to agents, beginning next year.
The cost of recruitment, however, does not include flight tickets and passports.
“At the same time, we have reduced the deposit from RM1,000 to RM500, and the processing cost from RM500 to RM250,” he was quoted as saying.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, in tabling the 2018 Budget, announced that the government was giving employers a choice of nine countries from which to recruit foreign maids directly, without having to go through agents.
The countries include Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, India, Vietnam and Laos.