The plight of Indonesian women workers abroad

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.