ASEAN looks at protecting women workers abroad

ASEAN looks at protecting women workers abroad

By Sumono Mustoffa

JAKARTA: Should the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) break away from its usual "black-tie" diplomatic concerns
to tackle, as a group, the nitty-gritty issue of protecting
thousands of its women who work as domestic helpers abroad?

The 10-nation grouping recently concluded its summit in
Manila, where it heard a number of Utopian schemes. Philippine
President Joseph Estrada, for example, called for a common
currency.

Finance leaders discussed the pace of ASEAN's rebound from the
regional economic crisis, and foreign ministers assessed the
potential for conflict in the Spratly Islands.

That is fine. The collapse of the Soeharto regime in Indonesia
and the controversial jailing of Anwar Ibrahim in Malaysia
signaled a refreshing apertura -- or opening -- to the
libertarian winds sweeping the world.

But as the new century opens, voices in Jakarta, where ASEAN
maintains its secretariat on bustling Jl. Sisingamangaraja, ask:
Will this body take aggressive and coordinated action to protect
the rights of its mistreated and abused women who seek jobs
abroad?

That question resonates in the Philippines and Thailand. Both
have thousands of its citizens working in other ASEAN countries,
like Malaysia and Singapore, as well as in Hong Kong, Taipei and
oil-rich Middle Eastern countries like Saudi Arabia and the
United Arab Emirates.

The Philippines today is Asia's largest exporter of labor --
ahead of Indonesia, China and Vietnam.

A minority of these workers are specialists like doctors,
pilots, nurses, architects, etc. They form the well-known "brain
drain".

But a majority are the less-educated young, pushed out by
joblessness. Unemployment and underemployment in Indonesia are in
the double digits. Relatively higher wages in foreign countries
is a pull factor in the "brawn drain".

In the late 1990s, labor migration flows changed, according to
the Asian Development Bank. High-income countries like Brunei,
Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong have emerged as "new destinations
for migrant labor".

The stories of abuse faced by these migrant workers are long,
consistent and well-documented. Crimes against women from ASEAN
countries, as well as Bangladesh and India, include unpaid
salaries, inhumane working conditions, confiscation of passports,
physical abuse, etc.

Jakarta recently witnessed the return of an Indonesian woman
who escaped beheading after knifing her Saudi employer who tried
to rape her.

Flor Contemplation of the Philippines was executed in
Singapore after a trial that left far too many questions
unanswered. Thai women have had their passports confiscated and
salaries withheld.

In countries like Saudi Arabia, the right of workers from
ASEAN and other countries to worship freely is curtailed.

So far, most ASEAN countries, including Indonesia, Thailand
and the Philippines, have worked, on a bilateral basis, on
protecting their nationals. But this is an issue of common
concern.

Why should the ASEAN grouping not be used to protect these
citizens? That would bring ASEAN's perspective beyond narrow
national borders to a broader vision of a common regional
identity.

Common action in ensuring the implementation of United
Nations' conventions on labor and migrant workers on an ASEAN-
wide basis offers a useful avenue for work in the new millennium.

It would also go a long way toward erasing ASEAN's image as
the "last refuge of unconstituted violators of human rights".

-- (DEPTHnews)