Body of migrant worker arrives at airport
Multa Fidrus, The Jakarta Post, Tangerang
Four months after her death, the body of Maesaroh, a 28-year-old female migrant worker from East Java, arrived at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport on Friday at around 10:30 a.m. on a Malaysian Airlines flight.
Maesaroh -- who started work in Amman, Jordan, in January 2000 to earn money to support her family -- was declared dead from tuberculosis on Dec. 18, 2003, by the Home Hospital Gaza Palestina.
But migrant worker activist Norma, quoting a staffer of the Indonesian Embassy in Jordan, Budi, who took Maesaroh's body home, said that she died from a heart attack.
"We doubt the official statement on the cause of Maesaroh's death," she said.
Maesaroh's coffin was not accompanied by documentation and no officials were allowed to open it and view the body.
Norma said that the cause of death remained unclear.
"Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration officials said she died from tuberculosis that she had contracted before leaving the country," she said.
Another migrant worker activist, Mulyadi, also questioned the cause.
"Her family was sure that she did not suffer tuberculosis before working in Jordan," he said, as quoted by news portal detik.com.
Mulyadi was awaiting the arrival of the body at Adi Sumarmo Airport, Surakarta, Central Java, before taking it home to Ngawi, East Java.
"The family will confirm that the body is Maesaroh's before deciding whether to ask for an autopsy to ascertain the real cause of death," he said.
Mulyadi said that Maesaroh's husband, who works as a farmer, received a letter from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Jan. 29, 2004. The letter was dated Jan. 16, 2004.
"The ministry requested the family allow Maesaroh's body to be buried in Jordan but her husband disagreed. He insisted that we brought her wife's body back home," he was quoted by Tempointeraktif.com as saying.
A manpower ministry official, Jimin Naryoyo, was also unable to explain the cause of Maesaroh's death.
"We can't explain it. There was no documentation with the coffin," he said.