Abuse your maids and get banned for life

2007/06/18
PUTRAJAYA: People who ill-treat their maids may be barred for life from employing them.
The director of the Immigration Department’s enforcement division, Datuk Ishak Mohamed, said he would not hesitate to make such recommendations to the department’s foreign workers division.

"If indeed it is true that the employers abused or ill-treated their maids, we will recommend to the division that the employers be blacklisted forever from getting a maid," he said.
Ishak said a man in Dengkil, Selangor, who abused his maid, was recently blacklisted for life from getting another one.
"I made the recommendation to the foreign workers’ division and it was approved.
"We will definitely act against employers who acted inhumanly as their actions can mar the image of other employers and the country."

Commenting on the case of Indonesian maid Shamelin who tried to escape through the window of a 15th floor condominium in Sentul on Saturday, Ishak said he had ordered his officers to look into her employer’s background.
"We will also assist Shamelin if she wants to go back to her country. We will liaise with the Indonesian embassy," he said.

Shamelin, 33, from Sumatra, who alleged she was abused for months by her employer, tried to climb down the building using a rope fashioned from pieces of cloth tied together.
She made it to the 12th floor before getting cold feet and was rescued by firemen.