Activists seek worker protection

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