Legal Protection on Indonesian Domestic Workers in Malaysia: From Actors’ View

Abstract

This article provides an overview of actors’ perspective on legal protection under Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Government of the Republic of Indonesia and the Government of Malaysia on the Recruitment and Placement of Indonesian Domestic Workers 2006 and Its Protocol 2011 after the moratorium (2009-2011). After taking up a discussion on whether the moratorium was useful or not for the workers, the different perceptions on legal protection by various actors constitutes the subject of this article. The article then analyses empirical evidence concerning the perspective of the actors, both formal and informal actors, on Indonesian domestic workers’ legal protection under the MoU 2006 and its Protocol 2011. It is argued that the implementation of these laws does not make significant improvement to domestic workers’ protection. The article describes the perspective of the actors on domestic workers’ protection, followed by some cases and violations on domestic workers after the moratorium.

Keywords:

Legal Protection, Indonesian Domestic Workers, Malaysia, Actors’ Perspective, MoU 2006 and Protocol 2011