SEANF Paper on Migrant Workers a party. Suhakam echoes the recommendation of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women that the Government should take immediate measures to ensure national laws comply with the provisions of CEDAW. 24 The Government should also immediately ratify ILO Conventions 87 (Freedom of Association) and 105 (Abolition of Forced Labour). 83. The SEANF recommends that the Government amend the labour laws to ensure domestic work is fully covered under labour protections in the law, in line with the recommendation of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women in 2006. 84. The SEANF recommends that the Government respond positively to the request of the Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants (made in 2006) to conduct a mission to the country and cooperate fully with the Rapporteur during the visit. 85. The SEANF recommends the Government to launch a public campaign against employers’ seizure of migrant workers’ passports because such practices are a clear violation of the Passport Act 1955. The SEANF urges the Government to enforce this law against employers and labour recruitment/outsourcing firms, starting with fines. For firms that are repeat offenders, the Government should revoke their license to hire foreign workers. 86. The MOHA policy of licensing labour outsourcing firms to bring migrant workers in Malaysia resulted in significant, ongoing abuses against migrants, and significant inefficiencies in the deployment of workers. 25 The SEANF recommends scrapping the system of labour outsourcing and replacing it with a system to be 24 Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, “Concluding comments of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women: Malaysia”, 35th Session, 15 May – 2 June, 2006. 25 Since labour outsourcing firms profits depend on recruitment fees, they have an incentive to maximize the number of workers brought to Malaysia, even in cases where there is not sufficient work for those workers. Unscrupulous outsourcing firms have been found detaining workers in abysmal conditions, or abandoning them to become irregular workers. Labour outsourcing arrangements also allow actual enterprises employing the workers at their facilities to shirk responsibility for paying promised wages and benefits to migrant workers, since payments are the responsibility of the labour outsourcing firm. 39