The Star/Asia News Network
Wednesday, Dec 05, 2012
KLANG: Several clients of the maid agency implicated in a recent fiasco where 105 foreign women were rescued from its premises in Bandar Baru Klang have complained of exploitation.
Businessman Caleb Khoo, 34, said he hired a Filipina maid from the agency in February last year but she ran away a month later.
The maid turned around to accuse Khoo and his pregnant wife of assault.
"She was picked up by the police and sent to the Philippine Embassy and the agency told me to go there the next day," said Khoo.
Khoo added that he had refused to go to the embassy and a police report was subsequently lodged against him and his wife.
He said he had evidence to show that there was no truth in the maid's allegations.
"My house is wired with CCTVs and my wife and I were not at home at the time of the alleged abuse," said Khoo.
Khoo added that the court granted him and his wife a discharge not amounting to an acquittal early this year after the maid failed to turn up for the trial several times.
"There is always so much publicity in the media when maids are abused but what about employers like us who are exploited?" asked Khoo.
Another Klang resident who declined to be named said the agency asked her to pay RM14,000 for a maid from Indonesia.
However, they had requested for cash and told her that no receipt would be issued.
She said that the agency told her some "under-table payments" had to be made to bring the maid into the country which was why no receipt could be issued.
"I was desperate for a maid and paid them. They sent me a maid who did not even know how to do basic housework," she said, adding that the maid came from a remote village from Indonesia's Papua district.
Meanwhile, another Klang resident Jocelyn Ang said she hired an Indonesian maid from the agency in March last year but sent the woman back three weeks later after she was caught stealing RM700.
"I asked the agency for another maid and had to pay the cost all over again. I ended up paying about RM15,000 for both maids," said Ang who lives in Bukit Tinggi.
Ang added that the first maid should have been sent back to Indonesia after she had terminated her services, but the agency had sent the woman to another employer.
"I used the services of another agency to check and found out that the maid was still in Malaysia and working for another employer."
