The signing of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Indonesia and Malaysia on the May 30th was supposed to signal another wave of recruitment of domestic workers from Indonesia to Malaysia.

Three months later, recruitment agencies and the Malaysian Association of Foreign Maid Agencies (Papa) are crying out for the prime minister to intervene on the apparent continued moratorium by Indonesia, which Papa claims has left 35,000 families desperately waiting for domestic workers.

An official from the Indonesian Embassy, however, states that there isn't a moratorium in place - Indonesian women simply do not want to work as domestic workers in Malaysia.

It is now for us to ask ourselves - do we have safe and sustainable migration policies in place, and legal frameworks to safeguard the rights of domestic workers in Malaysia?

The MoU signed three months ago with Indonesia does not protect the rights of the domestic worker to Malaysia.

The Employment Act does not recognise her as a worker but as a servant. This non-recognition opens the gate to exploitation.

The right to a day off in a week is vague in the MoU as it also states that a worker can instead choose to be paid for overtime wages, without any means to account for what constitutes overtime and how this will be documented.

Similarily, her other rights as a worker are not recognised, and no standard contract for work has been developed by the Human Resources Ministry.

These omissions and commissions only reveal that the current policy and the MoU do not protect rights of the domestic worker and thus domestic workers and their families find that Malaysia is no longer a safe place to seek employment.

Tenaganita's recent study on recruitment in Indonesia revealed that families do not want to send their daughters to Malaysia as their lives will be threatened.

Every parent wants to ensure the safety of their children. Malaysia is seen as a dangerous place, especially for women and domestic workers.

Recent media reports of domestic workers being locked away for nine days with little food, and found dead of severe abuse, only reinforce this belief.

Malaysia's response, however, to these systematic violations of rights has been one of arrogance.

In The Star newspaper on Sept 6, labour director general Sheikh Yahya Sheikh Mohamed stated: "We recruit maids from 11 other countries besides Indonesia. We are not desperate for maids. We can always hire from other countries if they don't lift the ban".

The above statement smacks of arrogance of a person who believes that since we are "rich", we can move anywhere to recruit.

The poor are vulnerable and thus can be cheated, exploited and abused. There is absolutely no soul searching from the government of the day to identify and address the root causes of these serious concerns faced by domestic workers and employers today.

Unfortunately this is the glaring truth which we, in particular the government is denying and not taking effective steps to address it.

The recent court judgement on the refugee swap deal between Australia and Malaysia, which was a slap on our policies and positions, should awaken us to change.

Without ensuring the protection of rights of migrant workers, we cannot achieve sustainable employment. There is a global outcry which is now manifested in the ILO Convention on domestic workers.

Malaysia voted against it. As nations move forward to develop sustainability, Malaysia slides back, moving towards exploitation and practices of slavery.

Employers must realise that they can no longer expect cheap labor, demand an 18 hour work day and silence the migrant worker with the support of the state.

The government can no longer sustain this form of modern day slavery manifested in domestic labour.

There must be respect for the dignity of the person, decent work ensured and work out a due diligence of process from recruitment, employment and return.

Dr Irene Fernandez is executive director of Tenaganita.