NGOs prepare action to help workers

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.