THE Union government will make a list of undocumented Myanmar domestic workers in foreign countries as part of its efforts to extend to those people their legal rights and protection in respective foreign countries, said Daw Khin Nwe Oo, Deputy Director-General of the Labour Department of the Ministry of Labour, Immigration and Population.
“Currently, Myanmar domestic workers are working without legal protection from governments of respective countries and they have few rights to make contact with relatives or leave their employment when problems occur,” said Daw Khin Nwe Oo.
The government has started to collect a list of undocumented domestic workers in cooperation with Myanmar embassies and labour organisations. The ministry estimated that the numbers of domestic workers may reach from 30,000 to 40,000 in Singapore and around 28,000 in Thailand.
According to statistics collected from domestic workers who were sent legally to foreign countries, a domestic worker has to work six days a week with a salary of about 470 Singapore dollars (around US$350) in Singapore and with a salary of about US$505 in Hong Kong.
Myanmar began sending domestic workers to foreign countries in 1990 and sent 174 workers to Hong Kong and 130 to Singapore under a memorandum of understanding (MoU) before it suspended the scheme in June 2014.
Source:Global New Light of Myanmar
