Activists seek worker protection

JAKARTA: The Consortium for Indonesian Migrant Workers Advocacy (Kopbumi) urged the government on Monday to ratify the 1990 international convention on the protection of migrant workers and their families and draft a law on the same matter.

Kopbumi said in a press statement that Indonesia needed to ratify the convention to be legally bound by it.

Aside from that, the non-governmental organization appealed to the government to urge the international community to stop the execution of five Indonesian maids in Singapore.

The upcoming elections have distracted the government from making efforts to halt the executions, said Suprihatin of Kopbumi.

Four of the workers allegedly killed their employers and the other one was charged with manslaughter for negligence that caused the death of her employer's child.

Indonesian overseas workers, mainly working in Malaysia and Saudi Arabia, gave the state US$9 billion in foreign exchange earnings in 2002. --JP