Slavery continues to plague Indonesian migrant workers

Slavery continues to plague Indonesian migrant workers

Ridwan Max Sijabat, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

How tragic and terrible has been the violence against a great
number of Indonesian women employed overseas this year! Not only
were they harassed, physically abused or even raped but were also
sent home without proper payment or traded from one employer to
another.

Many women workers who had just arrived home from Saudi
Arabia, Kuwait, Malaysia and Singapore said how they were
insulted and beaten if they made mistakes in performing their
daily tasks, how they had to work overtime without extra pay, how
they were sexually harassed or raped by their male employers or
their relatives and how they were physically attacked by their
female employers after they had been forced to have sex with
their male employers.

Behind "the success story" of most migrant workers, many have
to endure brutality and undergo a form of slavery to gain 600
riyal per month in Saudi Arabia, or 300 ringgit in Malaysia.

The Association of Indonesian Migrant Workers (Kopbumi) in
Jakarta recorded 76 workers who died or were killed during their
employment between January and September 2003, while the
Pancakarsa Foundation, a non-governmental organization handling
troubled migrant workers in West Nusa Tenggara, put the figure at
135. Both also made an inventory and provided legal advocacy for
hundreds of other workers who were physically abused, raped or
not paid during their employment.

The figures are relatively small when compared with the total
1.5 million Indonesians employed overseas, but from a human
rights and multilateral perspective, the physical abuse and rapes
were really serious crimes that merit being brought before the
International Court of Justice.

The increase in physical abuse and rape has, in addition, both
affected Indonesia's bargaining power in the labor market and
tarnished its image abroad.

Foreign countries where Indonesian workers are employed have
ignored the increasing protests at abuses of workers, saying that
the cases would not affect their bilateral ties with Indonesia.
The Saudi Arabian government has turned a blind eye to the
increasing abuse of Indonesian workers in that country and,
instead, placed stronger emphasis on the bilateral ties between
two predominantly Muslim countries. Malaysia, which has been
flooded with illegal workers from Indonesia, has been reluctant
to sign the three proposed memorandums of understanding to
provide protection for Indonesian workers. The Malaysian
government's reluctance, it seems, has something to do with the
fact that despite harsher immigration legislation, Indonesians
will continue to enter Malaysia because of the explosion in
unemployment within Indonesia.

Despite frequent violations, Hong Kong and Singapore are the
only two countries to have implemented regulations on employment
of foreign workers in the informal sector. Other countries
employing Indonesian workers in this sector are the United Arab
Emirates, Qatar, Jordan, Oman and Egypt.

But, of course, it looks unfair to blame foreign countries for
the grievances of Indonesian migrant workers, as the workers are
often mistreated before their departure overseas and again upon
their arrival home.

Many workers have had to sell assets or have borrowed money at
high interest from loan sharks to finance their trip overseas, as
well as their recruitment and training fees and passport, via
labor agencies. Many workers are fleeced when applying for
immigration documents and have been subject to inhumane treatment
when undergoing training, while others are trafficked to Batam
and Tanjungpinang in Riau and employed as sex workers before
being sent to the Malaysian peninsula.

Unlike Philippine migrant workers who are given red-carpet
treatment upon their arrival home, Indonesian workers are trapped
by a transportation syndicate at Terminal 3 at Soekarno-Hatta
International Airport at the end of their Saudi, Malaysian or
Garuda flights. Workers have been known to pay Rp 250,000 for a
one-way trip to Cianjur, West Java, and Rp 1.5 million to West
Nusa Tenggara. Others are forced to change their riyal, ringgit,
or Malaysian dollars into Indonesian rupiah by bus drivers at
artificially low conversion rates, with those refusing to change
their foreign currency being abandoned on their way home.

Who should be blamed for the rampant extortion, abuse and rape
of migrant workers? Many blame the government for failing to deal
with abuse of workers properly, while others blame the workers
themselves, as they are unable to deal with problems of their own
making while traveling overseas and during their employment.

Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Jacob Nuwa Wea has
blamed labor export agencies, foreign diplomats, the police,
immigration officers, transportation companies and regional
administrations, which, he said, frequently imposed illegal
charges on migrant workers.

"Not only the manpower ministry but many other government
departments and agencies are involved in exporting workers," he
said, adding that he could not even take action against local
manpower and transmigration officers who abused the powers they
had under regional autonomy with regard to migrant workers.

The minister has revoked scores of licenses of labor export
companies found over the last four months to have violated
Ministerial Decree No. 144A/2000 on labor exports.

He said that although procedures for migrant workers had been
tightened, many workers would continue to enter foreign countries
illegally because of scarce job opportunities at home and higher
wage levels overseas.

According to data at the manpower ministry, unemployment has
reached more than 40 million.

Foreign diplomats have said they cannot focus on monitoring
migrant workers because that is just a small element of their
daily task in carrying out their diplomatic mission overseas.

In trying to create good governance, ministers and government
agencies can no longer blame one another for the government's
failure to regulate and manage the migrant worker issue because
that does not address the problem. Relevant authorities should
cooperate better to provide improved services and incentives to
workers in running the migrant worker program.

In its function as regulator, the government should produce
legislation instead of a ministerial decree, to regulate the
sending of workers overseas and provide legal protection for
migrant workers, as has been demanded by activists, so that all
relevant authorities and concerned parties can be asked to show
their commitment to strong law enforcement.

"It is bizarre to demand that foreign countries treat our
workers humanely while we fail to do it first ourselves," social
commentator Halomoan Hutapea said recently.

According to Halomoan, the most basic and important thing the
government must do is to make sure that all workers sent abroad
can at least speak English so that they can communicate with
people should problems develop, either on their way overseas or
during their employment.

"Second, workers must be skilled in doing their jobs, even
though they may be employed as domestic helpers, baby sitters or
shop attendants overseas," he said, adding that most instances of
labor abuse occurred because the workers involved were unskilled.

He added that most Indonesian workers employed in the informal
sector were elementary school graduates or dropouts, and most
were sent overseas without undergoing proper training beforehand.