Workers urge govt protection from SARS
Kurniawan Hari and Sari P. Setiogi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
A group of activists representing migrant workers held a rally at the House of Representatives (DPR) on Friday to urge the government to pay more attention, and provide protection, to Indonesian migrant workers, especially those working in countries affected by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).
They said the government had failed to give adequate protection to migrant workers, although it benefited from the labor export.
The protest took place on the heels of the SARS-related deaths of three Indonesian caregivers in Taiwan recently.
The activists said the lack of detailed information on the deaths of the Indonesian workers was additional proof of the government's neglect of migrant workers.
"We especially regret that the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration does not have any information about the three deaths," Consortium for Indonesian Migrant Workers (KOPBUMI) secretary Wahyu Susilo said at a meeting with Deputy House speaker Muhaimin Iskandar and legislator Yetje Lanasi.
It was ironic, Wahyu said, that he obtained information on the three deaths directly from the workers placement agency in Taiwan, not from the ministry.
Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Jacob Nuwa Wea said in Mataram on Wednesday that only one Indonesian migrant worker had died of SARS in Taiwan. The next day, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs released the identities of the three migrant workers, but had no details as to their place of origin.
KOPBUMI identified the three workers as Sri Redjeki, 35, who began working in Taiwan in June 2002, Mubadiyah, 28, who entered Taiwan in November 2001, and Rosita, 26, who arrived in Taiwan in July 2002. They were sent to Taiwan by the labor export firms PT Putra Jabung Perkasa, PT Bin Hasan Maju Sejahtera and PT Yonasindo Intra Pratama, respectively.
Their remains had been cremated between March 30 and May 2.
"The information came so late. Even when they died and their bodies were cremated, their families were not informed, nor were they asked for permission," Wahyu said.
It remains unknown whether the migrant workers were Muslims, and Islam does not approve of cremation.
Meanwhile, one new patient suspected of SARS has been put in an isolation room at the Sulianti Saroso Infectious Diseases Hospital in Sunter, North Jakarta. The 29-year-old Indonesian woman caught the virus in Guangdong, China, where she worked, and where the disease is thought to have originated.
Secretary to the Director General of Communicable Diseases Eradication and Environmental Health (P2M) Syafii Anwar, after a daily meeting on SARS at the Ministry of Health in South Jakarta, said the woman was admitted on Thursday with a high fever and cough, which are among the early symptoms of SARS.
She was later declared a suspected SARS patient as her condition grew worse.
"She went to Hong Kong from China and stayed there from Feb. 1 to Feb. 6, before she returned to China," said Syafii.
Separately, another patient was placed under observation at the Adam Malik Hospital in Medan, North Sumatra, on Thursday.
The 74-year-old Indonesian citizen had just returned from Singapore, a SARS-affected country.
Syafii also announced that an earlier case in a hospital in Batam had already been dropped from the list of probable cases, as it was confirmed that the man did not have SARS.
Another patient under observation is still undergoing treatment at Sulianti Saroso hospital. The 60-year-old man was brought to the hospital on Tuesday, after returning from Vietnam with SARS-like symptoms.
Syafii said an ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) SARS information website, www.asean.net/namru2.org was temporarily online until next week. The website would then be moved to http://www.asean-disease-surveillance.net.
The health ministry confirmed the purchase of several thermal scanners to be installed at some of Indonesia's 24 points of entry, including both air and seaports. The devices might be installed sometime next week.