Its executive director Glorene A Das said from past experience, domestic helpers who were hired directly were better protected.
“It is quite clear who we can hold accountable, (with) the employer hiring directly from the government instead of having so many players in the recruiting system,” she added.
However, she said there should be transparency in terms of hiring.
“We are hearing so much different input. We hear that the home ministry is working on setting up agencies that will directly hire, but I still feel that there is lack of clarity in the hiring of domestic workers.
“We support, but we call for a clearer system, transparency into how we hire domestic workers,” she said at a press conference on International Migrants Day 2017.
Glorene was asked to comment on the issue of online direct hiring, with Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi reportedly saying that employers can save more than 90% of the cost by recruiting foreign maids online beginning from Jan 1 next year.
Glorene said there were also concerns among employers and other stakeholders on how they could go about the process of direct hiring, as there was a lack of information from the government.
She added that not many consultations had been held with civil society organisations or the domestic helpers themselves.
“We failed to involve them in these discussions. Ultimately, we need to find out what should be in place, what is applicable and accessible to them, that makes it easier for them to come to Malaysia without having to be cheated and trafficked.”
Zahid, who is also deputy prime minister, had said employers usually have to pay up to RM18,000, but would only have to pay RM1,635 to the government through the Immigration Department.
He said the amount was the cost of hiring a maid and did not include flight and passport costs.
He was also quoted as saying that the government had taken measures including reducing the collateral from RM1,000 to RM500, and the processing fee from RM500 to RM250.
Najib, when tabling the budget in October, had announced that employers would be given the choice to recruit foreign maids directly from nine source countries without going through agents.
On whether there was an increase in cases of migrant worker abuse, Glorene replied in the affirmative, noting that this was because the group was engaged in community outreach, community mobilising and community training with different migrant workers.
She said Tenaganita was helping them better understand their rights as a migrant worker in the country.
“Many of the cases come to us after such training and mobilisation, because a lot of them don’t know that there is an avenue or access to justice.
“With this information, they are coming forward to file their cases, as they said. Last year alone, there were 536 cases reported.”
She said based on Tenaganita’s analysis, one case would normally contain between six and eight human rights violations.