NGOs prepare action to help workers
M. Taufiqurrahman and Multa Fidrus, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta/Tangerang
A number of non-governmental organizations (NGO) are preparing immediate steps to mitigate the hardships of migrant workers who have just returned from overseas.
Noted sociologist and chairman of Yayasan Nurani Dunia (World Conscience Foundation) Imam Prasodjo said on Monday that seven NGOs had joined forces to prepare emergency health services for the workers, particularly the women, who had fallen victim to harsh treatment by their employers overseas.
"We will purchase an ambulance, to stand by at the Soekarno- Hatta International Airport, to transport workers to nearby hospitals. Currently they have to pay dearly for rented cars," he told The Jakarta Post.
In the long term, the coalition will set up an independent team to probe alleged violations of the migrant workers' rights.
"If necessary, the team will leave for the countries where the workers were employed to collect information about the alleged violence perpetrated on our female workers," he said, adding that there were probably thousands of workers whose rights were abused and lived in harsh conditions.
Returning female migrant workers from Middle Eastern countries have heightened public awareness in recent weeks of their sufferings abroad.
Nineteen workers said they were treated harshly by their employers in Kuwait while six others had to be hospitalized due to injuries received while working in Saudi Arabia and Jordan.
An official at the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration had earlier blamed NGOs, which helped the workers return to their hometowns, and the media, for the systematic exposure, because "this could affect bilateral ties between Indonesia and the countries where the workers were employed".
Workers have no complaints about the treatment they receive at the airport's Terminal III.
"If I return through Terminal III, I can gather with my fellow workers," said Ami, who just arrived from Abu Dhabi on Monday.
The mother of two from Blitar, East Java, was sent home by her employer just a month after she started working because she was unfit to work.
"It's dangerous for us to go home directly without passing Terminal III, right?" she said.
"I'm glad that our trip home is arranged by the government through Terminal III because we are safer here. I'm afraid to go home alone without my friends," said Kuswatun, 33. She returned to her hometown in Kendal, Central Java, with swollen eyes resulting from physical abuse inflicted by her employer.
The airport police chief Comr. Sri Suari Wahyudi said that migrant workers might not know what they would face if they disembarked at Terminal II (for overseas flights).
She argued that many people try to take advantage of the workers' ignorance.
She said that one of the answers to workers' woes was a proper recruitment procedure from registration at the time of their departure, including the imposition of sanctions against corrupt government officials and labor recruitment agencies.