Mien to go to Saudi over 'prostitutes'

Mien to go to Saudi over 'prostitutes'

JAKARTA (JP): Many Indonesian teenagers have been sent to work
in Saudi Arabia as prostitutes, State Minister of Women's Affairs
Mien Sugandhi said yesterday.

"Their number is not in the tens, but has already reached the
hundreds," Mien was quoted as saying by Antara.

The minister reported to President Soeharto at the latter's
Jl. Cendana residence yesterday to discuss her plan to travel to
Saudi Arabia to investigate reports that young Indonesian women
were working as prostitutes.

Most of these women were below 20 years of age, and came from
poor villages, she said.

They were usually first lured into coming to Jakarta, to work
in red light districts, before being sent to Saudi Arabia.

Most of them reached Saudi Arabia by joining the hordes of
other women who were dispatched by government-supervised manpower
exporting agencies to work in the Middle-East kingdom, she added.

Mien said that on the trip to Saudi Arabia, she would be
accompanied by members of the House of Representatives and staff
from the foreign affairs and manpower ministries.

The minister also plans to visit Malaysia to check on the fate
of Indonesian women workers there.

She said many Indonesian women who work as domestic servants
there have been prevented from saying their Moslem prayers and
were forced to cook pork by their Malaysian employers.

Some were also denied their wages, she said.

"No wonder many of them simply quit," she said.

Mien said there were currently around 185,000 Indonesian women
working in Malaysia.

Saudi Arabia and Malaysia are the top foreign destinations for
Indonesian workers seeking higher wages. (emb)