Outcry over Singapore ads offering Indonesian maids for sale

SINGAPORE: Online advertisements in Singapore offering Indonesian maids for sale have been condemned as “unjust and demeaning”, in a rare flareup of tensions between the neighbours over domestic helpers.

Singapore is home to almost 250,000 maids, mostly from poor parts of Indonesia or the Philippines, who head to the wealthy citystate to earn higher salaries than they can back home.

While Indonesia regularly protests the abuse and exploitation of helpers in Malaysia and parts of the Middle East, complaints about treatment of maids in tightlyregulated Singapore are less common.

However, reports that Indonesian helpers were being offered for sale in the citystate on online marketplace Carousell quickly drew condemnation from rights groups.

The adverts under the username “maid. recruitment” reportedly offered the services of several helpers from Indonesia, while some ads indicated that maids had been “sold”.

The posts on the ecommerce site, which operates in several Asian countries and describes itself as “a simple way to sell the clutter in your life”, have now been removed.

Wahyu Susilo, executive director of Indonesian NGO Migrant Care, said the group “strongly condemned” the adverts and called for those behind them to be brought to justice.

“This is very unjust and demeaning to the migrant workers’ dignity,” he said.

Singapore’s labour ministry said it was aware of cases where maids were being “marketed inappropriately” on Singaporeheadquartered Carousell, and had gotten the adverts taken down and launched an investigation.

“Advertising (foreign domestic workers) like commodities is unacceptable and an offence” under local laws, a statement from the ministry said.

Employment agencies found guilty of such practices would have their licences revoked or suspended, it said.