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