Child labor export upset Soeharto

JAKARTA (JP): Reports on the alleged torture of a 15-year-old Indonesian maid in Singapore drew President Soeharto's concern yesterday over the export of child workers.

The president was quoted by Minister of Manpower Abdul Latief as saying that many parents let their underaged children work overseas after they had been lured by brokers' promises of big wages.

According to Latief, Soeharto said that many girls had gained passports with false ages from brokers so that they could qualify to work as maids.

"The forgery of workers' ages must be stopped because it will only harm the children," Latief said after meeting Soeharto at the presidential Bina Graha office.

President Soeharto ordered Latief to take all necessary measures to provide better protection for Indonesian workers abroad.

The maid, Hartati, allegedly endured months of being slapped, beaten and scalded with hot water by her female employer and her 13-year-old son before fleeing the house in Singapore earlier this months.

The teenager from the Central Java town of Banyumas reportedly had a mass of welts, bruises and lacerations on her body when she was rescued two weeks ago by two men who had learned of her plight.

She claimed her age was 15, four years younger than that in her passport. The minimum age for an Indonesian worker is 18. The minimum age for foreign domestic maids in Singapore is 16.

"I am saddened by parents who allow their children to work abroad," Latief said.

The maid's case is believed to be as one of the worst cases of maid abuse in Singapore.

Police have arrested her employer. Under Singaporean law, a person found guilty of causing grievous body harm with a heated substance can receive a life prison term.

Latief acknowledged that some government officials had profited from labor exports by helping agents provide required documents for workers.

"But it is not government policy, it was done by the unscrupulous individual officials," Latief added.

In rural areas, especially in Java, illegal agents paid parents to allow their children to work overseas, he said. (06)