Child labor export upset Soeharto
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)