Taking the podium to testify before Indonesian and Malaysian officials, activists and former fellow migrant workers, Sumasri uttered only several incomplete sentences while showing recovering major injuries to her back and thigh.
"*My employers used* not only verbal abuse, bullying and their hands or sticks to attack *me*. Dissatisfied with his bullying and defamation, my male employer took hot water and poured it all over my body," she said.
Sumasri, a 28-year-old married resident of Klemunan village in Blitar, East Java, has been gradually recovering from major injuries and severe depression after undergoing six-months' medical treatment at the Police General Hospital in Kramat Jati, East Java. She had been admitted to the hospital upon her arrival home, with severe burns to her body, on May 14, 2009.
Sumasri says she was very disappointed with the Indonesian and Malaysian authorities who have yet to complete their investigations into her case and bring her former Malaysian employers in Puchong to justice.
Sumasri accompanied by her husband, and several other victims of violence experienced during employment in Malaysia, gave the testimony in observance of the International Migrant Day, at a five-star hotel in Jakarta on Thursday.
"Minister, help me find justice," Sumasri said in her request to Manpower and Transmigration Minister Muhaimin Iskandar who had left the ceremony before victims gave their testimonies to the audience.
Ceriyati Binti Dapin, a 34-year-old former migrant worker, said she had been physically abused and beaten by her male employer, Ivonne Siew, for three-and-a-half months, between January and April, 2007.
"The abuse began after I was accused of spilling paint on her apartment floor. I was over-worked, more than 12 hours a day. Instructions were given not only with words but also slaps, beating and kicking any of my body parts she wanted.
"Unable to endure the physical abuse, I took many clothes to tie together to make a long rope, which I used to climb down from the 15th to the 13th floor, to seek help and escape," Ceriyati said.
She also asked the Malaysian and Indonesian officials to look into her case and seek justice and to have her employers to pay her salary.
Migrant Care, a local nongovernment organization providing legal and social advocacy for troubled migrant workers, called on the government to seek an immediate solutions to numerous cases befalling Indonesian migrant workers.
"Sumasri, Fathonah and Ceriyati are only three among hundreds of Indonesian workers that have been abused, tortured, underpaid or raped in their workplace. They won't come here to testify because besides being ashamed, they are pessimistic about whether the government is serious about protecting Indonesian citizens overseas," Migrant Care executive director Anis Hidayah said in his address to the ceremony.
Disappointed at the government's slow response to troubled workers, Anis urged the government overhaul the pro-business labor export industry.
"The state and the government have to revise their labor export policy that *currently* sees migrant workers treated as a trade commodity, and develop a pro-protection labor supply.
"The government has to be able to negotiate with user countries to treat migrants as human resources that have to be protected and treated humanely during their employment," she said.
According to data from the National Agency for Labor Placement and Protection (BNP2TKI), Indonesia received US$186 billion in foreign exchange from more than 8 million Indonesians working overseas this year.
ILO country chief technical adviser Lotte Kejser called on the Indonesian and Malaysian governments to properly handle labor abuse cases and take measures to prevent such incidents from happening again.
The two countries should not only speak about foreign remittance and foreign employment but prioritize labor protection for human rights reasons, she said. "Many migrant workers have not only been abused, but also denied access to justice, since many abuse cases have yet to be investigated or brought to justice."
Lotte also said Indonesia and Malaysia, employing the most Indonesian migrant workers, should ratify the 1990 UN Convention on protection of migrant workers and their families, and reformulate their labor agreement.
At least 12 Indonesian migrant workers died from physical abuse or chronic disease in Saudi Arabia and Malaysia this year, and around 200 workers were repatriated each week after developing troubles with their foreign agencies and employers.
Indonesian Ambassador to Malaysia Da'i Bachtiar conveyed his solidarity with workplace violence victims, but said these cases were casuistic and comprised only a small portion of the millions of Indonesian workers enjoying better employment in Malaysia.
"The cases must be seen in true proportions. However, the government has its obligation to protect Indonesian citizens anywhere in the world," he said, adding that most cases were a result of false documents and illegal entrance.
The condition of Indonesian migrant workers in Malaysia is expected to enter a new era, with the recent signing of a bilateral agreement allowing workers to hold their own passports, take one day off a week, and mandating the establishment of a joint task force to monitor and settle any disputes between workers and their employers or Malaysian labor agencies.
Datuk Ismail bin Abdurrahman, the director general for law affairs, said Indonesian migrant workers had a right to enjoy all things stipulated by the Malaysian law, provided they entered the country through the formal procedure.
"Malaysian law cannot tolerate lawbreakers, including Indonesian migrant workers. Besides, illegal immigrants are really nice preys for certain Malaysian employers who overexploit foreign workers," he said.
