28 RI women allegedly mistreated in Singapore

JAKARTA (JP): Twenty-eight Indonesian women working as domestic helpers in Singapore have been mistreated by their employers, according to an Indonesian cabinet minister.

The workers have taken refuge at the Indonesian embassy complex in the city state, State Minister of Women's Roles Mien Sugandhi said after meeting Sunday with 1,000 Indonesians, mostly female laborers, working in Singapore.

"Some workers were abducted for several months and were made to toil day and night," she said. Many complained their wages were withheld although they had worked for several months, she was quoted by Antara as saying.

Others told the minister they had been raped by their employers.

Unable to bear the hardship, some workers broke out of their employers' apartments, by tying bed sheets together and climbing down the outside walls, and sought refuge in the embassy, Mien said.

Mien, who has expressed concern over the conditions endured by Indonesian workers' in Saudi Arabia, is en route to several Middle East countries to obtain first-hand information on the situation. Her next destination will be the United Arab Emirates.

Courage

She praised the workers' for summoning up the courage to flee their workplaces.

The minister did say however that many Indonesians had found good employers and had renewed their contracts several times.

She told the workers to safeguard their Indonesian identity and retain the courage to face all challenges. "If you don't have the courage to tackle the challenges, you'd better go home."

Part of the problem, the minister found, was the dishonest Indonesian manpower suppliers who sent the Indonesians to Singapore.

The companies, she said, sought nothing but profit. They hardly cared about contacting the workers to check on whether they had proper legal protection.

She promised to look into improving the recruitment system to eliminate the mistreatment Indonesians going overseas.

The government is determined to phase out the export of unskilled workers. It hopes that by the end of 2004 only trained workers will be sent abroad.

According to Mien,the conditions faced by Indonesian workers in Singapore were better than those in Malaysia and Hong Kong.

Ambassador HBL Mantiri said he would help reform the recruitment system, improving coordination with the workers and Singaporean labor agents.

The embassy has, since September last year, required Indonesians working in Singapore to register at the diplomatic mission to make communication with them easier.

"The embassy charges for the service because it would need money to help people out if they had a problem," Mantiri said. (pan)