Indonesian migrant worker brutalized in Saudi Arabia

Luh Putu Trisna Wahyuni, The Jakarta Post, Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara

A 15-year-old Indonesian domestic helper can be added to the growing list of migrant workers brutalized or murdered during employment overseas.

The resident of Sebok village, Sumbawa, West Nusa Tenggara, who cannot be named to protect her identity, returned home last week suffering severe depression after nine months of torture in Saudi Arabia.

The victim, now locked away in a mental hospital in Mataram, Lombok, told relatives that her Saudi employer repeatedly attempted to rape her, beat her head against a wall when she refused and was locked in a room and fed just one meal a day for a month.

The girl's neighbor, who requested anonymity, said the girl's mental trauma was due to her mistreatment.

"She even attempted to escape her workplace but was captured and forced to work again ... until she started exhibiting mental imbalances."

The employer dismissed the girl and though he paid for her return to Indonesia, refused to pay all her entitlements.

The source said the girl's condition deteriorated upon her return. She became angry, damaged all the furniture in her parents' house and attempted to climb the walls of the house.

Her parents locked her legs between two pieces of wood for two days but later took her to the hospital in Mataram, where she was still undergoing intensive treatment, the neighbor said.

Endang Susilowati, the director of Panca Karsa Association, which is providing advocacy for the girl, called on the government and the company that sent her overseas, PT Alfira, to take responsibility for the victim.

"The government should demand PT Alfira account for the incident and the alleged falsification of the victim's age. The victim is only 15 but her age was marked up to 30 in attempts to win approval from Indonesian authorities to work overseas.

"We call on the Minister of Manpower and Transmigration (Jacob Nuwa Wea) to take action against the labor export company located at Jl. Salemba Tengah (Jakarta)," he said.

The company could not be contacted last night.

Endang said the case was just one of the numerous examples of appalling abuse handed out to Indonesian women overseas.

Several migrant workers from the province had returned home with children born during their employment.

Indonesians, particularly women, suffer terribly at the hands of their employers, particularly in the Middle East, Malaysia and Singapore.

Endang said she had delivered a letter to Alfira's office in Jakarta, which had been ignored. She said the victim's family was in need of money to cover her treatment costs.

Endang called on the government to review labor export procedures to protect workers.

She said the Panca Karsa Association had dealt with 37 cases where migrant workers had suffered mental health issues during their employment overseas.

The province earns an estimated Rp 1 billion per day in foreign exchange earnings from a total of 69,000 locals working overseas.