3.2.1. Employers do not Provide Access to Family Planning

Although pregnancy is prohibited among low-skilled migrant women employed in Malaysia in policy, those interviewed informed that there is little support from employers in terms of providing SRH education or services, either in terms of preventing STIs or providing family planning services. This interviewee explained that the prevalent moral attitude in Malaysia—that providing family planning encourages sexual promiscuity—may explain employers' attitudes.

*"The thing that upsets me is that there is very little recognition that women migrant workers who come here are young and usually sexually active. It's a fact of life. We have actually tried, through our NGOs, to promote the information on contraception, and access to contraception for these people. But people [employers] are very cagey about this! It all has got to do with the idea that: 'Oh, they are only here to work, you know. They are not supposed to have boyfriends or relationships.' And therefore, 'Why should we give them any information on contraception? It will only make them bad workers.' But the reality is, many of them are sexually active. And then, of course, if they don't have access to contraception, they get unwanted pregnancies. And of course, for them to terminate their contract halfway, it's a real waste because they made arrangements to do a two to four year contract with the factories, intending to earn and send money home. But the moment they are found to be pregnant, you know, they have two choices; They either have an abortion, or they are sent back." MD-9 PRIVATE GP*

This participant implied that providing family planning services is an important investment for both employers and workers, as unwanted pregnancies may result in job loss.

Nevertheless, civil society organisations have approached employers and embassies to provide SRH awareness for migrant workers with mixed success. This participant illustrates the best practices of multinational companies that invest in their employee's health by training migrant community leaders to ensure the continuous education of new recruits.

*"There were programmes done by our NGO with a few companies, where we train their community leaders. So, we will start talking about, 'What is the menstrual cycle? How to prevent STDs? About contraception and everything'. So, these community leaders will keep training new people [newly recruited migrant workers]. So, they know where to get contraception and will come to the clinic to get this [SRH services]" MD-12 CSO*
