Slaves or heroes?

Slaves or heroes?

The latest disconcerting report from Singapore has it that
maids-for-hire were made to sit in employment agency windows so
as to make it easier for potential employers to make their pick.

This measure, which was no doubt intended to be practical, has
drawn criticism from some Singaporeans, who said it recalled the
practice of prostitutes sitting in windows in the Netherlands or
Russia to attract customers.

Indonesian women are among the 140,000 domestics working in
Singaporean households, and they are among the at least 500,000
Indonesians working overseas, who contribute some US$2.2 billion
in crucial foreign exchange to this country, according to last
year's estimates.

While this report from Singapore would seem to be the latest
insult to our overseas workers -- mostly women working as maids
who are "not accorded even basic human dignity", in the words of
one Singaporean activist -- it merely reinforces the glaring fact
that governments that send and receive migrants still have much
to do to ensure the welfare and protection of the workers, even
when it concerns citizens of neighboring countries.

Based on reports from other countries where our nationals
work, such as in the Middle East, conditions in Singapore are
better, since in the island-state justice is quick once the
authorities learn that a worker has been abused. Nevertheless, a
death toll of 89 Indonesian women workers in Singapore since 1999
is no cause for comfort, and calls into question the
responsibility of all those involved in the sending and
recruiting of the workers.

While Singaporeans convicted of abusing their workers are
blacklisted from ever again employing foreign domestic help, and
special programs are held to educate people employing foreigner
workers for the first time, one must also question the sort of
training potential domestic workers receive in preparation for
their employment. Reports in the Singapore media have revealed
how new maids are immediately taken from the airport to
employers' homes, perhaps under the assumption that their
training in Indonesia is sufficient, even though some of the
women cannot speak a word of English.

One cannot blame the workers for failing to seek all the
necessary information and skills. Millions of other Indonesian
women would gladly seize the chance to follow in the footsteps of
their sisters to overseas employment, and the stories of those
who returned from overseas with nothing to show, those who were
abused and those who died in suspicious circumstances are
dismissed as bad luck.

In the absence of clear rules to ensure that workers
understand their rights and obligations, the women can only hang
on to the hope that they, too, may one day be able to renovate
their homes and send money for their children's tuition. Working
abroad is seen as a sure way out of poverty, and one that is
easier than, for instance, domestic work in large cities here,
where one is likely to be abused anyway and the pay is less.

Indonesia has been sending workers abroad for some 20 years;
yet it seems that we are content to simply enjoy the money that
they send back. We are relieved that we do not need to think
about creating jobs for hundreds of thousands of people, and fail
to ensure that they can work in dignity, return home safely and
enjoy the fruits of their labor.

This has been clear from the constant stream of horror stories
surrounding our workers, whether in the Middle East or elsewhere,
despite years of hoarse campaigning by activists -- and a recent
survey that shows 35 percent of workers face extortion when they
return home. Neighboring Philippines at least makes efforts
toward ensuring the welfare and safety of their migrant workers,
whom their leaders have rightly described as national "heroes and
heroines".

Among the latest joint efforts to protect our workers is a
commitment by Indonesia and South Korea to cooperate on training
and providing legal protection for some 70,000 Indonesian
"apprentices" in that country. Also, Minister of Manpower and
Transmigration Jacob Nuwa Wea said a training center would be
opened on Batam island for Indonesians hoping to find employment
in Singapore.

But without ensuring that legal action is taken against all
those involved in the abuse of workers, relying solely on the
skills of workers to keep employers happy reminds one of the
situation faced by victims of human traffickers.

As governments in the region begin to recognize their mutual
need for foreign labor on the one hand and foreign exchange on
the other, hopefully it will not take more casualties to awaken
our leaders to their responsibilities.