Ban fails to curb rush of maids to Singapore

Despite last month’s ban on sending women to Myanmar to work as maids, agencies in the city state say they are still arriving, but recruiters in Myanmar are charging higher fees for them.

"It has been business as usual for us," said Kerri Tan, a director at one of Singapore's largest Myanmar maid agencies, United Channel.

Maid agencies feared numbers from Myanmar would drop after Nay Pyi Taw suspended them from going to Singapore in the middle of last month, but they now say the ban is not being enforced strictly. About 50 domestic helpers a day have been arriving here in the past week – similar to numbers before the ban. 

 Myanmar barred its citizens from working as maids in the Republic for five months unless agencies in Singapore signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) guaranteeing certain rights and a higher monthly wage. It took the action last month after reports about ill-treatment of Myanmar maids in Singapore.

 

l Up to 30,000 Myanmar women working as maids in Singapore

l They are paid less than Indonesian and Filipina maids 

l Myanmar recruiters take up to the first eight months’ salary (for “fees)

 

l More and more Myanmar maids are fleeing their employers, due to abuse and lack of payment

 

l Despite the ban about 50 maids from Myanmar are arriving in Singapore every day

 

 

Association of Employment Agencies Singapore president K Jayaprema said the MoU was being examined. "We need to ensure that the interests of Singapore agents are protected too," she added.

Maids from Myanmar are typically paid S$400 (about US$320) to S$430 a month. They can go without wages for up to eight months to cover the recruitment fees.

They make up the fastest-growing group of domestic workers here. Their number has grown by 50 per cent over the past two years, from about 20,000 to more than 30,000.

Demand has gone up because they are cheaper to hire than Indonesians or Filipinos. The Philippine and Indonesian governments have mandated minimum monthly wages of S$500 and S$450 respectively for maids from their countries.

Migrant workers from Myanmar are considered to be among the most vulnerable in the region, according to Andy Hall, a researcher on migrant workers in Southeast Asia.

They are "uneducated and desperate, and trapped in an environment where there is a high level of corruption and low level of regulation", he said, adding that "the capacity of the government to manage [the migration of its workers] is very low".

Myanmar agents are increasingly active in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, but the safeguards are still not in place nor MoUs signed, said Hall, who has worked as a consultant to Myanmar’s Ministry of Labour.

While more Myanmar maids are coming to Singapore, a rising number are also running away from their employers' homes. Migrant worker activists told The Straits Times previously that the women were discouraged by having to pay off large loans.

Singapore agencies said that fees paid to agents in Myanmar could go up in the meantime, with some asking for S$300 more. Recruitment fees for Myanmar maids already come to about S$3,000, given the lack of enforcement of rules in Myanmar.

Tay Khoon Beng, owner of Best Home Employment Agency, said: "Myanmar agencies say it is hard to bring the maids here, but they are just using the opportunity to earn more."

Other agents said some airport officials in Myanmar are asking for bribes of US$50 a maid to let them board flights to Singapore.

"The extra fees will be passed on to the maids, and their loans will go up," said Tay.

"They are on the losing end."

Jayaprema agreed that the recruitment fees must be reduced.

"The Myanmar government has to limit the fees that their recruitment agents charge, and it must enforce the rules. If not, the problem will just go on," she said.