Saravanan said Indonesia had agreed to rescind the temporary freeze, which the minister previously said was merely a “temporary postponement”, Bernama reported.
On July 13, Indonesian ambassador Hermono said Jakarta had imposed a temporary freeze on all Indonesian workers entering Malaysia following a dispute over the system used for the recruitment of Indonesian maids.
Saravanan also said Malaysia and Indonesia had agreed to integrate the current system for the intake of domestic workers.
This will be done by the Malaysian immigration department and the Indonesian embassy in Kuala Lumpur.
Previously, Hermono had said the freeze was due to the immigration department’s continued use of the Maid Online System (MOS) for the recruitment of maids instead of the One Channel System (OCS).
He said the OCS was agreed to in Malaysia’s memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Indonesia, signed in April.
However, on July 19, Saravanan told the Dewan Rakyat there was no condition in the MoU for Malaysia to do away with the MOS.
He said the temporary freeze on Indonesian workers entering Malaysia was caused by confusion on the recruitment mechanism of labourers from the republic.
In a joint statement, Saravanan and Indonesian manpower minister Ida Fauziyah said the integrated recruitment system would be fully operational within three weeks.
“To ensure the smooth application and reliability of the integrated system, a three-month pilot project shall be done prior to the full application of the system under the OCS.
“Both ministers reiterated their commitment to prohibit any recruitment and employment of Indonesian domestic migrant workers through any mechanism other than the OCS,” they said.
The ministers also agreed that there was a need to accelerate the deportation of undocumented migrants, especially those from vulnerable groups.
In acknowledging the need to tackle human trafficking, they reiterated their commitment to engage related stakeholders to establish a strong bilateral cooperation over the matter.
“Lastly, both ministers are committed to facilitating cooperation between the social security agencies in Malaysia and Indonesia to strengthen the protection of Indonesian migrant workers.”
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