The plight of Indonesian women workers abroad

By Asip Agus Hasani & Efendy Naibaho

BLITAR, East Java (JP): Tutik, one of the 23,000 illegal Indonesian workers recently brought home by the government from Saudi Arabia, said she was too ashamed to face her neighbors because she did not bring any money with her despite being gone for two years.

"I spent the last nine months in jail," said Tutik who was reunited with her family here on Oct. 27.

She said the only money on her from Jeddah to Blitar was five riyal. "When we arrived in Jakarta, the Ministry of Manpower exchanged my money to Rp 3,000, which I used to buy some cookies, as a gift for my family."

Tutik left for Saudi Arabia on a three-month visa under the pretext of performing a minor pilgrimage, umrah. She intentionally overstayed and worked for a year as a domestic helper, moving from one family to another.

"When I was working I could save 500 riyal per month," she said.

"Once my visa expired, however, jobs became harder to find. I had to hide all the time for fear the police would arrest me."

It wasn't long before they did. One night the police raided her rented house and found that she had no iqamah (staying permit). Tutik and eight roommates were detained and were given a court hearing only seven months later.

She said she did not really understand what was going on, only that the judge sentenced her to nine months imprisonment and 160 lashes with a rattan stick.

"I did not speak Arabic. An Indonesian official, maybe from the consulate in Jeddah, told me about the punishment. I took it," said Tutik who never finished elementary school.

After leaving prison, she learned that the Indonesian government was airlifting thousands of "problematic" workers home. The prison officials took her to the workers' campsite to join the repatriation.

She returned home with only her clothes, a wristwatch and a little jewelry. "I am so ashamed I did not bring home any money. I am sad to see how my only son had to drop out of school because I could not pay for his tuition," she said.

Tutik was resolute, though, she would return to Saudi Arabia "when it's safe again".

"I haven't had anything but debts that I still have to repay," she said.

Eight other former workers from West Nusa Tenggara and the East Java towns of Kediri, Malang and Tulung Agung spoke to The Jakarta Post earlier this week. They expressed their dismay at having to be sent home from Saudi Arabia.

"Life was really hard when I worked in Saudi Arabia, but I really wish I could go there again," said one.

Mariyam, 30, from Central Lombok, worked for a year in Saudi Arabia on an umrah visa. "I ran away because my employer never paid me. I borrowed 50 riyal from a friend and joined the other workers who waited to be sent home by the government.

"But I really wish I could go to Saudi Arabia again. I just need to look for a better employer. My husband has left me and married another woman, so I have to work to feed my child," she said.

Other women also said they still wanted to work abroad.

"Maybe, next time, we won't go to Saudi Arabia, but to another country such as Brunei, Malaysia or Singapore," said Nursiyah, also from Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara.

She said the bad experiences in Saudi Arabia were enough to last a lifetime.

"I worked for five months without payment, my employer was often violent, and once he tried to rape me. So I went to the nearest police office. The police helped me so that I could go home," said the 16-year-old girl, showing her scars.

"If I go overseas to work again, I'll go to Malaysia," she said. "I will never return to Saudi Arabia."

Broker

Arfah Saripado's husband died four years ago and with only her meager earnings from washing dishes at a roadside food stall to support herself and her child, she decided to seek a better job abroad. She visited a woman, identified only as S, who was known to have helped countless women find employment.

Arfah, a resident of Medan, North Sumatra, her sister Nurainun and cousin Lamsariah Sitompul and four other women set off for Malaysia on July 10 last year. In addition to paying Rp 100,000 each to the broker, they paid their own bus fare to Dumai.

In Dumai, they were met by another broker, known as tekong, and stayed at her house for a month. In early August, the group took a small boat to Rupat Island. They reached the Malaysian shore after a long and arduous journey and continued on foot through a oil palm plantation all night before they finally arrived in Sungai Long.

There, along with 70 other women from Indonesia, the group waited before they were assigned to their places of employment. Arfah was taken to a Chinese family, but escaped after she was told to cook pork -- a religiously forbidden food for Moslems.

Her "agent" then "sold" Arfah for Rp 3 million to a Malay family with two small children and 20 Angoran cats. Three months later, Arfah found herself at the mercy of her female employer who beat her with shoes and a broomstick.

Arfah reported the mistreatment to the tekong and asked to be transferred to a new employer. Her request was rejected because she had to fulfill her three-year contract. But Arfah had never signed any legal document.

"I wanted to run away, but I didn't know where to go," Arfah said. "Besides, I needed to make some money because my daughter, then living with my aunt, wanted to continue school and become a doctor."

But the worst was to come. One day her employer became enraged because she said Arfah did not wash the cats properly, and let three of them out of the house so that they went missing.

"She threw hot water on my face, and it trickled all over my body, scalding me from my neck to my toes," Arfah said.

When Arfah's wound failed to heal quickly, her employers made Arfah don a head scarf and veil and put her on a ferry to Dumai, where she rode a bus home to Medan.

Here, she was admitted to hospital for ten days. Arfah still bears the scars of her torture, including a gap where three of her front teeth were knocked out.

A team of lawyers from the Lembaga Advokasi Anak Indonesia is handling Arfah's case and is seeking legal settlement on her behalf.

"Arfah might have entered Malaysia illegally, but she worked legally because she had a permit issued by the immigration office in Seremban, Malaysia," said Muhammad Joni, one of her five lawyers, in an interview late last month.