Fri, 26 May 2000

Envoy vows to help probe Indonesian worker abuse case

JAKARTA (JP): Palestinian Ambassador Ribbi Awad vowed on Thursday to help investigate the alleged abuse of a teenage Indonesian migrant worker by her employers and labor agency in Gaza.

"So far, I haven't received any information about it. But, for sure I am doing my best to help investigate the case," Ribbi told The Jakarta Post in a telephone interview.

"Our government will take all necessary steps not to let similar incidents to occur again,"

He said neither he nor the Palestinian government could accept the treatment allegedly meted out to Mela Indahsari.

He said Palestinians highly respected Indonesians.

"One drop of Indonesian blood is the same with that of a Palestinian."

Ribbi said he had not visited the young woman, who is now at the National Police R.S. Soekanto Hospital in Kramatjati, East Jakarta.

"I didn't know that she is already here now," he said.

Mela, 14, reportedly sustained repeated abuse from her employers and labor agency in Gaza from the outset of her contract in March. She broke her legs after falling from the third floor apartment of her fourth employer when she tried to flee.

Instead of earning the contracted wage of US$125 (about Rp 1 million at the current rate), Mela spent the last two months at Al Gaza Hospital in Gaza.

An operation was performed without her consent and a catheter inserted to help her urinate.

Her lawyer Munir Achmad from the Legal Aid Institute for Indonesian Migrant Workers (LPBHTKI) said the operation was to insert a metal plate along her damaged spine.

Amar Makruf, third secretary of information, social and cultural affairs at the Indonesian Embassy to Tunisia, which also covers Palestine and Libya, said he had yet to receive information about Mela's case.

"We have no data on migrant workers in Palestine. We'll first look for information through the Palestinian Embassy here as we never have direct contact with the government," he said by telephone from Tunis.

Munir said the many reports of abuse of Indonesian workers abroad showed Indonesian embassies were "timid" in handling such cases and preferred to maintain good bilateral relations instead of fighting for the rights of their citizens.

Munir, who often travels abroad to handle cases of migrant workers, accused some officials of embassies of enriching themselves through the workers' plight.

"I'm a witness to several cases that embassy officials made money from the distraught workers. They asked for money from the agencies here and abroad, saying that it would be used to pay for the tickets to transport the workers home," he said.

"While the workers were also asked to work for a certain period of time to finance the tickets themselves."

Separately, LPBHTKI disclosed that an Indonesian migrant worker in Hong Kong, Purwanti Katiman, 23, is believed to have committed suicide last Friday.

The institute said in a written statement dated May 23 that the worker from Ponorogo in East Java apparently jumped from her employer's eight-floor apartment.

"According to her agency, she still was in contact with the agency hours before the suicide. She asked why she vomited so often and felt dizzy," the statement said.

Hong Kong Police are investigating her death. Purwanti's body is at the Universal Funeral Parlor in Kowloon and will be flown to Surabaya next Thursday. (ind)