Sorry lot of migrant workers

Sorry lot of migrant workers

I feel both deeply saddened and concerned to witness so many
Indonesian women migrant workers returning home after
experiencing so much suffering. I would be all the more concerned
to find that many Indonesian women migrant workers are missing or
lost their lives in Saudi Arabia without the Indonesian
government being able to effectively monitor their stay there.

That is why I fully support manpower minister Fahmi Idris when
he stipulates that Indonesians wishing to work abroad must sign
work agreements. A work agreement may protect a migrant workers
and prevent him or her from being ill-treated by an employer, who
may be taken to court for violating the agreement.

In this context, I find it hard to understand why the Saudi
Arabian embassy in Indonesia cannot issue a visa to an Indonesian
migrant worker already under a work agreement. It means the Saudi
Arabian government condones harmful practices undertaken by Saudi
Arabian citizens against citizens of other countries.

Allow me in this letter to express my thanks to the Saudi
Arabian government for its donation (dates and goat meat) to
Indonesia's poor as an expression of fellow Muslims' solidarity.
However, are the actions of the Saudi Arabian government and
people toward Indonesian women migrant workers in line with the
good teachings of Islam, as explained in the Koran? I leave it to
your judgment.

SUHARSONO HADIKUSUMO

Jakarta