`Stop exporting female workers'
`Stop exporting female workers'
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
A research institute affiliated with Nahdhatul Ulama (NU) called
on the government on Thursday to immediately terminate the export
of female migrant workers abroad.
Head of the migrant worker advocacy team set up by the NU
manpower development institute Achsin Zaidy said that given the
recent plight that had befallen hundreds of overseas workers, it
was high time that the government stop the export of female
workers.
"The sending of migrant workers to work as baby-sitters,
domestic helpers, waitresses and the like will only disgrace the
whole nation," he was quoted by Antara as saying.
The 19-strong team also urged the government to establish
bilateral ties with countries receiving Indonesian workers,
mostly in the Middle East, and dispatch more labor attaches and
police liaison officers to handle cases involving overseas
workers.
"We also demand our envoys in the receiving countries to do
more to protect the civil rights of our overseas workers," Achsin
told reporters here.
The team has sent a petition -- concerning a moratorium on the
export of migrant workers -- to President Megawati Sukarnoputri
and the House of Representatives deputy speaker Muhaimin
Iskandar.
NU is considered the largest Muslim organization in the
country with 40 millions members.
Earlier, Muhaimin called for the resignation of Minister of
Manpower and Transmigration Jacob Nuwa Wea for his failure to
protect the rights of the country's migrant workers.
Muhaimin said that the minister was considered to be unable to
cope with the issue, as made evident by the repeated cases of
abuse against Indonesian workers overseas.
He made the statement after a meeting of House leaders which
also recommended that the government halt the export of female
migrant workers.
In the last two weeks, 15 female workers have been treated at
the Soekanto Police Hospital in Kramat Jati, East Jakarta, since
their arrival from a number of Middle Eastern countries.
Some of the women admitted that they had to return home after
working for several months because they could no longer cope with
the constant violence inflicted upon them by employers, including
sexual abuse.
A number of the returning migrant workers were reportedly
suffering from clinical depression.
Achsin said that the manpower ministry should penalize
recruitment agencies (PJTKI) which have violated proper
procedures in recruiting migrant workers.
Separately, the manpower minister rebuked demands for his
resignation as aired by Muhaimin.
"I am not to blame for the plight of our migrant workers,
because this is an accumulation of the country's problems during
the last 32 two years," Nuwa Wea said, referring to the period of
president Soeharto's administration.
He downplayed problems afflicting migrant workers, saying that
they were but a small problem among a myriad of problems in his
ministry.