'Stop sending women workers to Middle East'<\/p>\n
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
State Minister of Women's Empowerment Sri Redjeki Sumaryoto has
\nstrongly urged the government to stop supplying women workers to
\nMiddle Eastern countries as they are still treating Indonesian
\nwomen employed as domestic helpers in the region as slaves.<\/p>\n
\"Such treatment amounts to abuse and therefore, a serious
\neffort is needed to ensure that Indonesian women working in Saudi
\nArabia and other Middle Eastern countries are treated humanely,\"
\nthe minister said in the West Nusa Tenggara provincial capital of
\nMataram on Thursday.<\/p>\n
She said she had delivered a letter to Minister of Manpower
\nand Transmigration Jacob Nuwa Wea to stop temporarily the
\ndispatch of women workers to the Gulf countries until they
\nrevised their rules to provide for protection of foreign workers.<\/p>\n
Many Indonesian workers encountering difficulties with their
\nemployers or families in Saudi Arabia could not go to court as,
\naccording to that country's regulations, they were considered
\npart of their employers' extended family. Consequently, their
\nemployment fell under the jurisdiction of that country's home
\naffairs ministry, instead of the labor ministry.<\/p>\n
Sri Redjeki also suggested that workers going overseas should
\nbe protected by legislation that threatens stiffer penalties
\nagainst any party found guilty of extorting workers or using
\nviolence against women, especially those recruited for placement
\nabroad.<\/p>\n
She said the government should ask the agencies to take
\naccount of workers' recruitment at home and their placement
\noverseas.<\/p>\n
\"The sending agencies must take responsibility for any
\ntrouble, starting with their departure to their arrival back home
\nagain. Prior to leaving overseas, the agencies should also ensure
\nwith their foreign counterparts that the employment of workers
\nwill be based on a standard labor contract.<\/p>\n
\"They should have lawyers to provide legal aid for troubled
\nworkers, including suing employers who mistreat or harass them,\"
\nshe said.<\/p>\n
Some two million Indonesians work in the Middle East and
\nalmost 70 percent are employed as house maids.<\/p>\n
Over the last five years, many Indonesian women employed as
\ndomestic helpers in the Middle East have been caned or sentenced
\nto death over sex scandals with their employers, while thousands
\nof others have left their place of employment due to being
\nunderpaid.<\/p>\n
The manpower and transmigration minister recently acknowledged
\nthat hundreds of women workers who had left their employers had
\nbecome prostitutes in night clubs and entertainment centers in
\nthe region. He also said many Indonesian women were still working
\nin the sex industry in Hong Kong and Taiwan.<\/p>\n
In Hong Kong, the labor law was strictly enforced but in
\nreality most women workers employed as domestic helpers received
\nsalaries far lower than the minimum monthly payment as set by the
\nlocal administration.<\/p>\n
The government has threatened not to supply women workers to
\nHong Kong unless the authorities solved the problem of cutting
\nIndonesian workers' salaries on the island.<\/p>\n
Sri Redjeki called on the media to expose not only the
\nproblems experienced by overseas workers but also the success
\nstories, to avoid creating an unduly negative impression about
\nthem.<\/p>\n
\"The public should not be given a biased impression on
\noverseas workers because the number who work without experiencing
\nany problems at all is far greater than those who do,\" he said.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/stop-sending-women-workers-to-middle-east-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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