Singapore threatened with ban on Indonesian maids =

Singapore threatened with ban on Indonesian maids =

Indonesia's manpower minister has threatened to stop sending maids to Singapore if the city-state does not do more to protect their safety, a news report said on Wednesday.

Twenty-three Indonesian maids died last year here and 93 lost their lives between 1999 and 2003, Jacob Nuwa Wea told The Straits Times in Jakarta.

"All of Indonesia's efforts to protect migrant workers in Singapore have come to naught", he was quoted as saying.

Many of those who died fell from high-rise apartments despite agreements between the two sides to improve working conditions, Jacob said.

Senior officials at the ministry clarified that no decision had been taken on the matter.

New foreign maids will soon be required to attend a course informing them of their rights to say "no" if asked to perform such dangerous tasks as hanging wet laundry from a high-rise flat, Singapore's Manpower Minister Ng Eng Hen said earlier this month.

In a move toward "righting the relationship" between employers and maids here, the course will outline what to do if bosses make demands compromising maids' safety, he said.

Twenty-two employers were jailed for abusing their maids between January 2001 to June 2003.

Many of the 140,000 maids in Singapore come from Indonesia, the Philippines and Sri Lanka. Others are from Myanmar (Burma) and India. -- DPA