The Malaysian Insight

THE Home Ministry will use Indonesia’s One Channel System (OCS) to allow Indonesian workers to come to Malaysia, said M Saravanan.

“There are no conditions to use the existing mechanism in Indonesia. But we have agreed to integrate the Home Ministry system with Indonesia’s OCS,” the Human Resource Minister told Parliament today.

He also denied that the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Indonesia on foreign workers had been cancelled.

“On July 12, we announced that there will be a delay due to some confusion with the mechanism. And on July 18, the Home Ministry and HR Ministry agreed to coordinate with some agencies,” said Saravanan.

Saravanan did not explain what the confusion was about nor explain why the government had breached the MOU with Indonesia.

The minister was responding to Anthony Loke (Seremban-PH) who asked why the government failed to comply with the conditions stipulated in the MOU with Indonesia resulting in a freeze on labour import from the country.  

Earlier this month, Indonesian ambassador to Malaysia Hermano said that the Immigration Department’s continued use of the Maid-Online System (MOS) in the recruitment of Indonesian domestic workers was a breach of the MOU.

Following that, Indonesia has imposed a temporary freeze on Indonesian workers in all sectors in Malaysia, effective immediately. It was also understood that a letter was sent to the Human Resources Ministry citing the breach of the MOU on the recruitment and protection of Indonesian domestic workers. – July 19, 2022.