Tortured, raped migrant workers seek justice

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)