Malaysian Association of Foreign Maid Agencies (Papa) president Foo Yong Hooi told FMT that this is especially pertinent now that companies are gradually lifting the work-from-home policy in light of an increasing fully vaccinated population.

“Working families have to take care of children and sending them to daycare centres has higher risks compared to getting a domestic worker at home.”

Now that the government has approved 32,000 foreign plantation workers, it should do the same for domestic workers, he said, arguing that this group was equally important.

Previously, human resources minister M Saravanan had said that the government was drawing up SOPs, including identifying a 2,000-person capacity Covid-19 quarantine centre near the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA), to facilitate bringing in 32,000 plantation workers after labour shortage complaints.

Foo added that the government can set SOPs in place for domestic workers, too.

“Of course, the source country may also have a high rate of infections, but we can have proper SOPs to have mandatory quarantine for them.

“If the country cannot get them vaccinated, we can have procedures to inoculate them while they’re in quarantine, and we can increase the quarantine period up to 21 days and release them only after they get their second dose. For those fully vaccinated, we can shorten their quarantine period,” he said.

The continued ban on foreign maids could also give rise to people employing domestic workers illegally, with greater risk to employers and families, he said.

He added that association members have highlighted possible syndicates taking advantage of the MyTravelPass programme to bring in domestic workers.