H

span class="inline inline-left">Happy ending: Indonesian migrant worker Bayanah binti Bahnawi (center) affectionately holds her son (left) and mother after arriving back in Jakarta from Saudi Arabia on Wednesday. She recently faced a death sentence for allegedly killing her employer’s four-year-old child. She was freed by the court after the child’s family pardoned her. Antara/Lucky R.Bayanah binti Bahnawi, the Indonesian migrant worker who escaped the death penalty for committing murder in Saudi Arabia, returned home on Wednesday and said she was emotionally scarred by the ordeal.

Bayanah was one of three migrant workers in Saudi Arabia who were sentenced to death for murder but who were then pardoned by the families of their victims.

“I don’t want to work as a migrant worker anymore. I am traumatized,” Bayanah told reporters while cuddling her 11-year-old son soon after she arrived at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Banten.

The two have lived separately for the past six years.

Two fellow migrant workers, Jamilah binti Abidin Rofi’i and Neneng Sunengsih binti Mamih, are expected to return in the coming days.

Bayanah recalled her ordeal, saying that she was first jailed six years ago after working for only three months for a family in Saudi Arabia. She was sentenced to jail for murdering a four-year-old by showering him with hot water. She was first whipped 300 times during her four months in prison and was sentenced to death in 2009.

“I got around 50 lashes each month. I never intended to kill the child. The faucet tripped and the hot water kept on going and burned the child’s body. I should have been more careful,” she said.

Bayanah also said that she only received 18,000 riyals (US$4,799) for her three-month salary.

She added that the Indonesian government had played an important role in her release.

“I have to thank many people, including President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and members of the Task Force for Indonesian Migrant Workers, for working so hard to help me escape death and return home safely,” she said.

Bayanah’s father, Bahnawi, told a different story of the government’s role in his daughter’s release. Bahnawi said he had desperately sought help for two years before he met contacts at Migrant Care, a nongovernmental organization promoting the rights of Indonesian migrant workers.

“I reported my daughter’s case to the Foreign Ministry and to the Agency for the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers as soon as one of her friends in Saudi told me that she was in jail. But nothing happened until I talked to Migrant Care. Regardless, I am grateful for all who have helped,” he said.

Head of the Task Force for Indonesian Migrant Workers Maftuh Basyuni said the return of the migrant workers was a gift from the government to the Indonesian people.

“I come home with a New Year’s gift, bringing Bayanah and two other migrant workers back safely,” he said.

The task force recorded that 47 Indonesian migrant workers were facing the death penalty in Saudi Arabia, of which 30 had already been sentenced to death. Another 148 migrant workers are on death row in Malaysia, three in Iran and two in Singapore.

Migrant Care executive director Anis Hidayah earlier said that Bayanah had undergone court proceedings seven times, had been caned 300 times and was incarcerated for five years before her release.

“There was no interference from the task force either,” she said. (msa)