Authorities are planning to conduct a nationwide enumeration of the domestic workers in Myanmar, according to Thein Swe, Minister for Labour, Immigration and Population.
Currently, the timeframe for the count cannot be confirmed as it is still in the planning stage, said the Minister. He continued that since there is no legal procedure in place concerning the employment of domestic workers in Myanmar, authorities face difficulty to handle the issue.
Myanmar, where the home helps often fall victim to violence and cruelty by their employers, has no practice of the registration of home helps like in other countries and there is no licensed agency that provide service for domestic help employments. Domestic workers seek jobs through their families and friends. A meeting on the domestics issue took place in Yangon on June 6 and some members of parliamentarians also took part in the discussion.
Although Myanmar has suspended the permission to export helpers to overseas countries, those who work through illegal channels are exposed to rights violations at the hands of alien employers.
