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Deceived. Excessive overtime. Retention of identity documents. Denied contact with the outside world. Abusive working and living conditions.

Enslaved as a forced labourer for five long years, Zheka’s story is emblematic of the scourge of forced domestic work in Malaysia—a phenomenon of modern-day slavery that is gravely inhumane, hidden yet rampant, and stubbornly complex to tackle.

According to the “Skilled to Care, Forced to Work?” report released in June 2023 by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), 29% or approximately one-third of migrant domestic workers in Malaysia face similar forced labour situations, which is comparatively higher than domestic forced labour rates in Singapore and Thailand that are at 7% and 4%, respectively. A United Nations (UN) agency that aims to set labour standards and promote decent work, the ILO surveyed about 1,200 domestic migrant workers in Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia...

According to a New Straits Times article, over the past three years, Indonesian domestic workers reported unpaid wages worth RM 6.72 million (USD 1.4 million) to the Indonesian embassy in Malaysia. 95% of all 374 unpaid wage complaints filed to the embassy in that period involved domestic workers.

In contrast, for Zheka, one clear sign of involuntariness was deception as her employers and recruiters coerced her into working in the iron factory—something that she did not consent to do as a domestic worker...

Three clusters of issues make migrant workers vulnerable to forced domestic labour in Malaysia: (a) Malaysia’s patchwork of protection rules against forced domestic work, (b) recruitment loopholes, and (c) the unchecked power of recruitment agents and employers in the absence of strong worker bargaining power...