Workers urge govt protection from SARS

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.