Indonesia Stops Sending Maids to Saudi Arabia

Indonesia said it will stop sending domestic workers to Saudi Arabia until the 2 countries can do more to protect the hundreds of thousands of Indonesian maids and other migrants that work there.

The announcement comes in the wake of a national outcry in Indonesia over the surprise execution of Ruyati binti Sapubi, an Indonesian maid who was convicted of murdering her Saudi employer. Indonesian diplomats said they weren't notified before Ms. Sapubi was beheaded with a sword in Mecca on Saturday.

Indonesia's move is indicative of a growing awareness in labor-exporting countries like Indonesia, India and the Philippines about the risks their citizens face while working in richer countries overseas. Some countries, like Indonesia, are starting to demand more protections from countries that heavily rely on their citizens to handle the lower-skilled jobs their own residents don't want to do.

In the latest case, Indonesia's Ministry of Manpower said on Wednesday that from August it will freeze the flow of domestic workers to Saudi Arabia for now.

"The government has decided to impose a moratorium for Indonesian migrant workers to Saudi Arabia from Aug. 1 until a memorandum of understanding between the 2 countries for the protection of Indonesian workers is signed," the ministry said on its website. More than one million Indonesians work in Saudi Arabia, most of them as domestic laborers.

Efforts to seek comment from Saudi Arabian officials weren't immediately successful.

The treatment of Indonesia's army of overseas workers has become a hot political issue in the giant Southeast Asian country. While it depends heavily on the more than $7 billion its more than six million migrant workers send home each year, Indonesia is indicating a growing willingness to block workers and take the hit in remittances if it believes its workers are being abused. Officials in the Philippines, another major source of overseas labor, have also expressed concerns.

"Another critical matter that we need to address as we embrace the new era of social justice is the plight of migrant workers," Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said in a speech to a gathering of the International Labor Organization this month. "We in Indonesia call these migrant workers 'economic heroes' due to their hard work and selfless devotion to the welfare of their family back home."

Mr. Yudhoyono said Indonesia and other labor-rich countries want their citizens to be given minimum wages, regular holidays and a safe working environment.

There were similar calls to end the flow of labor late last year after a spate of reports of alleged maid abuse and even murder in Saudi Arabia. In one series of reports and photos that triggered protest rallies in the Indonesian capital, a 23-year-old maid's employer allegedly abused her by beating her, cutting her lip with scissors and burning her back with an iron.

A similar spate of abuse news convinced Indonesia to ban maids from going to Malaysia in 2009. Indonesian officials said hundreds complain in Malaysia every year of mistreatment, overwork and unpaid salaries.

2 years later, the 2 countries have reached an agreement to restart the flow of maids after Malaysia prosecuted some offenders, including a woman who was sentenced to eight years in prison for scalding her Indonesian housemaid with hot water and assaulting her with scissors and a hammer.

Indonesian government officials concede the country still needs remittances from workers overseas, as well as an outlet for its giant unskilled labor force. Indonesia has the world's fourth-largest population after China, India and the U.S. They have also indicated they understand that with millions of its citizens abroad, there are bound to be some that are abused.

But the government has become less willing to ignore the reports as Indonesia's domestic economy has boomed in recent years and the country's international stature has grown. Attention on the issue continued with Ms. Sapubi, who was arrested in January 2010 and was sentenced after confessing to murder, the Associated Press reported, ading that she is the 2nd Indonesian maid to be executed in Saudi Arabia since 2008.

Source: Wall Street Journal, June 22, 2011

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