Women working overseas need better legal protection

Women working overseas need better legal protection

JAKARTA (JP): A group of social scientists and activists
called on the government yesterday to give better legal
protection to Indonesian women working abroad.

Pande Radja Silalahi, an economist at the Center for Strategic
and International Studies, said that many Indonesian women are
seeking employment overseas to meet the world market's increasing
demand for female workers.

Silalahi said, however, that greater protection is needed for
the 700,000 Indonesian women working overseas, most of whom are
employed as domestic helpers and know little of their legal
rights.

Over the past few years, more than 625,000 Indonesian workers
have been employed in Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong and Malaysia. Last
year they brought in revenues of more than US$282 million.

Hundreds of thousands of Indonesians work, mostly illegally,
on plantation and construction projects in Malaysia. Local NGOs
recently alleged that thousands of illegal workers are in
detention houses and badly treated by Malaysian authorities.

However, the National Commission on Human Rights dispatched a
delegation to visit some of the workers, and reported this month
that the laborers are being treated properly.

A sociologist from Cornell University, Nana Chandra Kirana
Soedjatmoko, shares Silalahi's views. She said over the weekend
that most domestic helpers have little formal education and are
unable to confront complex legal matters.

"Female workers are also prone to extra harassment," Nana told
a seminar held to commemorate the birthday of the country's
pioneer in women's emancipation, Raden Ajeng Kartini.

Nana pointed out that other unfavorable conditions -- such as
long working hours, absence of health care and the uncertainty of
their futures after their contracts expire -- are issues that
need to be tackled.

Yesterday's meeting, held at Jakarta's Taman Ismail Marzuki
arts center, was attended by various women's organizations as
well as laborers, who performed a short play about the sufferings
of Indonesian maids and servants working in foreign countries.

Stressing the role of migrant workers as a source of income,
Silalahi said that the government should not only give women
workers better legal protection but also more facilities.

"A domestic helper working overseas can earn $150 a month, or
three times as much as a servant here," he said.

Taty Krisnawati, an activist from the organization of Women
Solidarity for Human Rights, said that abject poverty in rural
areas across the country has prompted hundreds of thousands of
women to seek employment in foreign countries.(16)