Bill prepared on woman and child trafficking

Bill prepared on woman and child trafficking

Sari P. Setiogi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Mauwanatul was 17 when she decided to leave her village to work
as a domestic helper in Singapore in 2000. She harbored a
reasonable expectation -- to be able to earn enough money as
possible to support her parents back home.

But the reality turned out to be nothing close to her dream.
In December 2001, Mauwanatul was found with around 200 wounds all
over her body. Her blouse was soaked with her own vomit.

There were cuts, bruises, punctures, stab wounds, scratches,
burns and several open wounds on her body. Her weight had dropped
to 36 kilograms from the 50 kilograms she had weighed when she
first left Indonesia.

Her employer, 47, treated her very badly. He punched, whipped
and slashed her, when not burning her with cigarettes. Mauwanatul
was also asked to work almost 24 hours a day with no day off.

With only a little food, mostly instant noodles, she was often
left hungry. One time she was suspected of stealing baby food.
For that she kicked hard on her stomach, which left an open
wound.

It was shortly after this that she was found dead by police.

Mauwanatul's story is only one of hundreds, or even thousands,
of traumatic experiences suffered by Indonesian migrant workers
abroad.

It is estimated that there are between 1.4 million and 2.1
million Indonesian female migrant workers currently working
abroad, including the undocumented.

Like Mauwanatul, many of these women and girls left their home
villages with high hopes of earning enough money abroad to
support their families.

Many of them are lucky, but some experience bad treatment at
the hands of their employers. Some are even forced into the sex
trade.

A 2001 report by ILO-IPEC said that there were around 1.4
million domestic workers in this country, with up to 23 percent
of them being children under 15. Many of them are certainly
deprived of the opportunity to continue their studies and enjoy
their childhoods.

The government has been working hard to reduce the number of
women and children trafficked as cheap labor and sex workers. If
earlier Indonesia was categorized as a third tier country as
regards women and child trafficking -- meaning the country was
considered to have no awareness of the problem and virtually no
law enforcement against women and child trafficking -- the
country has recently been reclassified as a second tier country.

"Indonesia is now considered as a second tier nation, which
means we have the awareness but are not yet implementing the
laws," said State Minister for Women's Empowerment Sri Redjeki
Sumaryoto on Friday.

Sri said her ministry was preparing a bill on eradicating
women and child trafficking, which would soon be submitted to the
House of Representatives (DPR) for further discussion.

In the meantime, Minister Sri has assigned Dewi Hughes, host
of popular television program Mimpi Kali Yee! to be the
spokesperson for the national campaign to eliminate the
trafficking of Indonesian women and children.

As part of her new job, Hughes will travel to several high-
risk areas for women and child trafficking to hold dialogues and
educate local people on the dangers of becoming illegal or
undocumented migrant workers.

"I will try to develop people's awareness about what they
might face as migrant workers -- not just the tempting promises
of big money," said Hughes.

However, for those who have already decided to try their luck
as migrant workers, Hughes reminded them to make sure about what
job they would have abroad, keep their passports with them and
avoid fake IDs.

"Also for parents, I would humbly ask them not to demand that
their children go out to work before they reach the age of 18,"
said Hughes.