Tortured, raped migrant workers seek justice

JAKARTA (JP): Imas binti Enan went to Saudi Arabia to work and improve her lot. Instead, she lost her face. Literally.

The 22-year-old woman from Ciliwuk village, Karawang, West Java, is now in deep distress following a nightmarish incident last September.

It was around midnight on Sept. 27, 1998, when her Saudi employer, identified only as Husein, suddenly went berserk. He sprayed Imas with acid when she tried to prevent him from killing his wife and three children.

"I lost my nose, lips and eyebrows. I got blisters all over my skin and my face became flat...," Imas said. She was describing the ordeal she went through including a month of medical treatment at a hospital in the Saudi town of Jambuk and 33 days at the National Police General Hospital in East Jakarta.

Husein is reportedly now in jail in Jambuk after he was proven guilty of killing his wife and one of his children, and of torturing his two other children and Imas.

Imas, who now covers her face with a dark veil, said she still had nightmares. She was shunned by her relatives and friends, and she could not make money to pay for further medical treatment.

Neither she nor her farming family could afford the plastic surgery her doctor suggested that she undergo.

"My neighbors, and even my relatives, now refuse to speak to me because they are scared to see my ugly face," Imas said.

She said PT Avida Aviaduta, a labor export company which sponsored her to work overseas, paid her only Rp 2,7 million (US$ 337.5) in compensation for loss of employment.

Imas was one of 22 female workers who went to the ministry of manpower on Tuesday to seek justice over the inhumane treatment they had received at the hands of their foreign employers over the past few months.

Acih Binti Sawin, 25, from Sekarwangi village in Karawang, showed scars on her body -- the result of being beaten and "ironed" by her employers during her ten month stint in Al Khapj, another small town in Saudi Arabia.

"My employer and his relatives punished me with a hot iron; they cut my hair; they hit my head and nose with a hammer just because they found me talking to another Indonesian worker," she alleged.

She said she was kept inside the house and was not allowed to go out.

"During the first four months of my employment I tried to escape but they found out, and they monitored me to prevent me from escaping," she said.

She eventually did manage to escape around midnight on Dec. 17, 1998, and reported to a Saudi labor agency.

Mecah binti Emmy Darfan, who worked as a domestic helper in Mastur Ali's household in Jeddah from July 20 until Sept. 17, said she decided to return home after she was raped by an employee of the labor export company who sent her to Saudi Arabia.

"I was raped on Sept. 3 when (he) fetched me from my employer's house for medical treatment at a hospital in the city," she alleged.

Salma Safitri of Women's Solidarity who accompanied the female workers lodging their complaints with the ministry, said that 17 other workers came home from Saudi Arabia recently after their employers failed to pay their wages.

She urged the government to look into the cases, and the labor export companies to show their moral and legal responsibility by helping the plaintiffs.

"We are seeking justice over the inhumane treatment of women and we hope such cases will not occur again in the future," she said.

Director General for Labor Placement Din Syamsuddin, who received the workers on Tuesday, vowed to probe the cases. He said labor export companies and their Saudi counterparts should be held responsible for the barbarous treatment of Indonesian workers.

"The government will contact the Saudi Arabian authorities to investigate the cases thoroughly," he promised. (rms)