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ctivists have submitted a citizen lawsuit against President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, his aides and the House of Representatives, for failing to protect domestic workers in the country and abroad.

“This lawsuit signals that we want stronger protection for our domestic workers,” the National Network for Domestic Workers Advocacy (Jala PRT) coordinator, Lita Anggraini, told The Jakarta Post after filing the lawsuit at the Central Jakarta District Court on Tuesday.

Lita said the government should make more efforts to better protect domestic workers against physical and psychological abuse.

“Many Indonesian domestic workers still work and live in poor conditions due to the absence of proper laws needed to protect them against mistreatment from employers,” she said.

In total, seven entities are included in the lawsuit, comprising Yudhoyono, Vice President Boediono, Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa, Law and Human Rights Minister Patrialis Akbar and Manpower and Transmigration Minister Muhaimin Iskandar, as well as the Indonesian Labor Placement and Protection Agency (BNP2TKI) and the House of Representatives.

“They have failed to carry out their responsibility to provide the country’s citizens with adequate protection. They have failed to issue the necessary laws direly needed to protect Indonesian domestic and migrant workers,” said Lita.

Activists have voiced such demands several times, but there has been no response. Indonesia and several other countries have a strong demand for domestic workers.

According to 2009 data, domestic workers account for the largest percentage of total women workers worldwide. Globally, domestic workers have reached more than 100 million people. In Indonesia alone, there are 10.74 million domestic workers.

“This is a huge number, definitely, because 67 percent of our middle- and upper-class households employ domestic workers,” Lita said.

Most Indonesian migrant workers are employed as housemaids. “I can say that domestic help is a job segment attracting millions of migrant workers worldwide each year due to high demands,” Lita said, adding that domestic workers enabled millions of families both in Indonesia and abroad to carry out their work. However, they are still prone to various physical and psychological abuse.

Many domestic workers are underpaid yet have excessive workloads. Most face long working hours, reaching between 12 to 16 hours per day. “This affects their health,” Lita said, adding that domestic workers were not always paid their salary. Despite increase violence against Indonesian domestic and migrant workers, the government and House members, Lita said they have not adequately responded to the condition. “Both Yudhoyono and House members cannot do anything except blame other countries for mistreatment. This is disgraceful,” she said.