Foreign maids in Malaysia are prey to physical, psychological and sexual abuse because of flawed government policies, said Human Rights Watch.

The country's 240,000 domestic workers - more than 90 percent of them from Indonesia - should be given the same protection as other employees, the New York-based group said in a letter to Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

"Indonesian domestic workers in Malaysia typically work gruelling 16 to 18 hour days, seven days a week, and earn less than five dollars a day," it said, with many employers withholding pay until the end of a standard two-year contract.

"In Malaysia, most domestic workers are forbidden to leave their workplace and many suffer psychological, physical, and sexual assault by labour agents and employers.

"It's time for Malaysia to clean up its own house by extending labour protections to domestic workers," said LaShawn R Jefferson, women's rights director at Human Rights Watch.

Malaysia's labour law, which protects most categories of workers, specifically excludes domestic workers, the group said.

Thousands of complaints

Non-governmental organizations and the Indonesian embassy in Kuala Lumpur have received thousands of complaints from maids about working conditions, wages or abuse in the past few years, it said.

Malaysia promised last year to create a labour agreement with Indonesia on migrant domestic workers within a three-month period, but more than a year had passed with little, if any, progress, the group said.

It noted that Malaysia had recently shown interest in recruiting domestic workers from Cambodia, Sri Lanka and Thailand because labour agencies have recruited only 12,000 Indonesian domestic workers in the past six months instead of the typical 60,000.

"The significantly lower pay and poor working conditions in Malaysia compared to other common destinations like Singapore and Hong Kong have fueled the shortage.

"While Malaysia excludes domestic workers from most standard labour protections, Hong Kong ensures domestic workers' rights to rest days, a minimum wage, limitations on hours of work, and to join unions.

"Malaysia is shooting itself in the foot by repeatedly failing to reform its immigration and labour policies."

Human Rights Watch also criticised a crackdown since March 1 which has seen the arrest of thousands of undocumented migrants, including refugees.

"Mass expulsions will not solve illegal immigration. The government must commit itself to meaningful labour reforms and the prevention of abuse," the group said.