Indonesian workers recount plight in Singapore<\/p>\n
Hera Diani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
A modest housewife from a village in Magetan regency, East Java,
\n52 year-old Binarti was not a woman with many words.<\/p>\n
But her faint tone, watery eyes and mournful expression
\nclearly displayed the grief of a mother whose child was facing a
\nlife sentence in a foreign country.<\/p>\n
Binarti's eldest daughter, Sundarti Supriyanto, a 24 year-old
\ndomestic worker in Singapore, had been sentenced to death last
\nyear for murdering her Singaporean employer, Angie Ng, along with
\nMrs Ng's two year-old daughter Crystal, then burning their
\napartment and illegally using Mrs Ng's ATM card, in June 2003.<\/p>\n
After the Indonesian Embassy there sought clemency for
\nSundarti, her sentence was eventually commuted to life in prison.<\/p>\n
Binarti said she was not aware of the life sentence for her
\ndaughter. It was not easy for her to understand that her own
\nchild was capable of committing such a crime. She only hoped
\nsomebody could do something more to further reduce Sundarti's
\nsentence.<\/p>\n
\"I hope the (Singaporean) government will grant (another)
\nclemency. I want my child to be protected,\" Binarti told The
\nJakarta Post on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Sundarti's case added to the long list of problems for migrant
\nworkers, especially in Singapore, where there are approximately
\n45,000 Indonesians working as maids.<\/p>\n
From 1999 to 2005, at least 114 Indonesian domestic workers
\nhave died, mostly by falling from high story buildings.<\/p>\n
In 2004 alone, there were 26 cases of death among Indonesian
\ndomestic workers with causes ranging from falling from apartment
\nbuildings (the majority), suicides, train crashes, illnesses and
\ndrug abuse.<\/p>\n
In the first month of this year alone, three people have
\nalready died by falling from high buildings.<\/p>\n
\"One was killed while working, one allegedly committed
\nsuicide, and another fell while trying to escape. She was using
\nscarves tied together with knots to jump down from a window,\"
\nIndonesian Ambassador to Singapore Mochamad Slamet Hidayat told a
\ndiscussion on Singaporean migrant workers on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
He said there were numerous other cases affecting domestic
\nworkers in Singapore.<\/p>\n
In 2004, the embassy provided emergency housing to 198 workers
\nwho had ran away from their employers due to harsh treatment,
\noverwork, abuse, and unpaid salaries.<\/p>\n
The Embassy also received 89 police reports in the same year
\nof cases of stealing involving Indonesian workers.<\/p>\n
There were also five children born outside of wedlock, mostly
\nto Bangladeshi boyfriends.<\/p>\n
Hidayat blamed problems with Indonesian maids in Singapore on
\nchaotic mechanisms in the recruitment processes at home.<\/p>\n
\"There is no coordination and control, the process from job
\norder until the issuance of passports is not integrated. Thus
\nidentity fraud is rampant,\" the ambassador said.<\/p>\n
The workers sent were young, even underaged, women with only
\nelementary school education and with barely any skills or job
\ntraining.<\/p>\n
The pressure of work and difficulties adjusting to the new
\nenvironment caused psychological problems for the unskilled
\nworkers. They are also unaware of their own rights as workers and
\nhow to tackle abuse.<\/p>\n
\"What amazes me is how they pass the medical tests. Some of
\nthem have tuberculosis, chronic liver and kidney disease, and
\nsome have heart attacks in the first months they work here,\"
\nHidayat said.<\/p>\n
Activist Lies Sugondo from the National Commission on Human
\nRights (Komnas HAM) said domestic workers should be given
\neducation on life skills, reproductive health and sex.<\/p>\n
\"Most of the workers have been brought up with the perception
\nthat women are inferior to men, so they are powerless when it
\ncomes to male employers,\" Lies said.<\/p>\n
She claimed that the right to a day off work is still a luxury
\nfor many as they have to work 24-7, and that this practice had to
\nbe fought by the Indonesian Embassy in Singapore.<\/p>\n
\"The Embassy should gather the workers together at least once
\na week to give them training,\" Lies added.<\/p>\n
According to Hidayat, his embassy has been conducting monthly
\ntraining for workers there on, among other things, how to cook.<\/p>\n
The embassy, he added, has also been giving Indonesian maids
\nMandarin and English classes in anticipation of Singapore's plan
\nto enforce a new rule in April, which imposes English and
\nmathematics tests on maids.<\/p>\n
The regulation also requires all domestic workers to be at
\nleast 23 years old, with at least eight years of school
\neducation.<\/p>\n
Other programs being held by the embassy are the
\nimplementation of an accreditation system for migrant worker
\nrecruitment agencies, and conducting regular programs on radio
\nstations in Batam, Jakarta and Singapore to educate workers.<\/p>\n
\"What is urgent I guess is a one-stop-shop policy. Every
\nworker going to Singapore should enter through Batam. It will be
\neasier for us to control the process there,\" Hidayat said.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/indonesian-workers-recount-plight-in-singapore-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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