T

he government must engage in consistent and active diplomacy to protect Indonesian migrant workers and prevent their abuse, activists say.

The chairperson of the National Commission on Violence against Women, Yuniyanti Chuzaifah, said that the Indonesian government’s reluctance to protect its workers’ rights stems from a disrespect shown by other countries towards the workers.

“People and the governments of those countries have not been convinced that Indonesia is able to protect its migrant workers,” she told The Jakarta Post recently.

In Saudi Arabia, for example, the local media covered Indonesian migrant worker abuse stories but did not tell of the Indonesian governments efforts to protect its citizens in the Middle Eastern country, she said.

Six million Indonesian citizens work overseas, 80 percent of whom are women domestic workers, according to the migrant worker NGO Migrant Care.

Several allegations of the abuse of Indonesian migrant workers by their Saudi Arabian employees have recently emerged, including the case of Sumiati binti Salan Mustapa, 23.

The young woman who cannot speak English or Arabic, arrived in Medina in July from Dompu in West Nusa Tenggara, to work as a housemaid for 800 Saudi riyals (US$213) a month.

The Saudi Gazette reported Sumiati suffered wounds to her lips, forehead, nose, cheeks and chin.

Migrant Care executive director Anis Hidayah said the Indonesian government’s efforts to protect overseas workers has to be more than just an occasional statement to provide cellular phones.

Migrant workers need legal protections to protect them from abuse, she said.

“We should develop legal protections instead of just providing them cellular phones,” she said in a press statement, in response to an idea from the President to give cellular phones to domestic workers to prevent abuse.

Indonesia’s overseas representatives can only help migrant workers after they are in trouble. This is a far cry from what the Philippines does to protect its workers.

The Phillipines has signed bilateral labor agreements and memoranda of understanding with several nations to ensure that Filipino workers are afforded basic protections and good salaries.

The diplomatic track has not always been smooth.

Middle Eastern media reported that the Philippines has been in tough negotiations aimed at pushing Saudi Arabia to provide basic protections to unskilled Filipino workers such as maids, nannies, family drivers and farmhands.

Saudi Arabian labor law does not cover unskilled laborers, which makes their abuse easier.

Indonesia’s Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Michael Tene said that the Indonesian government had increased efforts to stop migrant worker abuse, including in Saudi Arabia.

The government is consulting with its Saudi Arabian counterparts on a bilateral agreement covering the legal protection of Indonesian migrant workers.

“The legal protection package is set to cover all migrant workers, including those in the informal sector,” he told the Post. (ebf)