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n what may be the biggest deportation of Indonesians from Saudi Arabia ever recorded, 2,349 migrant workers arrived at Tanjung Priok Port on Wednesday morning, marking the end of a 12-day journey.

The Labobar sailed from Jeddah on April 22, carrying Indonesians who overstayed their work visas. On board, three women gave birth to three babies. Another woman was luckier as she was taken to a hospital to give birth when the ship was near Padang, West Sumatra.

The new lives aboard the Labobar were one of the bittersweet parts of their experiences in the journey.

“When I first saw the vessel, I thought I would be fine. It is a very big ship. I looked around and the ship looked good and comfortable. I thought it was steady and that I would not feel the waves at sea. I was totally wrong,” said Siti Nurhayati.

Soon after the vessel departed, Siti felt acute seasickness.

“My condition got so low that the doctor had to inject a liquid infusion into me,” said the woman, originally from Malang, East Java.

Siti appeared exhausted when speaking, but she said she was happy to be back in her home country after more than a year of living under the Kandara bridge, a fate shared by many other Indonesians.

Siti went to Jeddah two years ago. She had all the necessary legal documents to serve as a house maid, but her “madame,” she said, was vicious.

“She did not allow me to rest more than two hours. She also overload me with tasks. When I made a mistake, no matter how little it was, she would beat me. I finally ran away after eight months of working for her,” she said.

Triyani Kabul, 47, shared a similar story. She received many beatings from her masters. “Sometimes it was just a simple thing. She gave orders in Arabic. I needed time to understand it. She shouted at me, said I was slow, then beat me,” she said.

Tri said she tried her best to understand the language. “If I could not understand the order, I asked her to repeat it in English so I could understand it,” she said.

Tri, who previously worked as a maid in Taiwan for six years and in Hong Kong for five years, speaks fair English.

After nearly two years, she had had enough. “The physical abuse became more intense. Then I began to think, maybe it’s time to run away. I did not want to end up dying or dead as an overseas worker,” she said.

Violations against Indonesian migrant workers occur mostly in Saudi Arabia. Migrant Care, an NGO focused on the welfare of Indonesian workers abroad, reported that 38 percent of physical abuse cases reported were in Saudi Arabia in 2007, the highest among countries such as Malaysia, Taiwan, Singapore and other Middle Eastern countries. Last year, the NGO reported that 5,563 physical abuse cases against Indonesian workers occurred in Saudi Arabia.

Only a few cases made it into the media’s spotlight. Last year, Sumiati Binti Salan Mustapa, a worker from Dompu, West Nusa Tenggara, was severely abused. Her upper lip was cut and her feet were nearly paralyzed after continuous abuse.

The return of the migrant workers to Indonesia from Saudi Arabia aboard the Labobar should be the last mass deportation of migrant workers, said Maswita Djaja, a deputy to the Coordinating Minister for Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection on people’s welfare.

Maswita said it was the responsibility of ministries related to migrant workers and overseas workers’ firms to reduce the number of abused workers. (lfr)