Cash cow: In this Dec. 19, 2009, file photo, a protester stands by a wooden cow during a rally to mark International Migrants Day in Jakarta. The crowd were protesting the government's lack of care for the safety and protection of Indonesian migrant workers and their families. The slogan painted on the cow reads, "TKI = Cash Cow." (JP/P.J. Leo)Prior to her death, Indonesian migrant worker Juju Juwanah binti Enung Golib contacted her family at home after arriving in Saudi Arabia.
Migrant CARE activist Nur Harsono said on Thursday that Juju, who hailed from Majalengka, West Java, called her family one week after arriving in Saudi Arabia on June 10, 2011.
“She told her family that she went to a hospital because her arms were swelling,” Nur told The Jakarta Post, adding that Juju had borrowed someone’s cellphone to make the call.
He said Juju and her family lost contact after the call.
“On Sept. 26, 2011, Juju’s family received information that Juju died, from the recruitment agency that sent her to Saudi Arabia [PT Grahatama Indokarya],” he said.
Nur said Migrant CARE had asked the family to organize an autopsy on Juju to establish the real cause of her death once her body arrived in Indonesia. The family have opted against this.
Juju’s body is scheduled to arrive at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Cengkareng at 7.05 p.m. today.
Despite the family’s reluctance for an autopsy, Nur said they demanded that the government uncover the cause of her death.
The Foreign Ministry said that Juju died at King Abdul Aziz Hospital in Thaif after she attempted to escape from the third floor of the house of Fuhaid Hamid Al Sufyani, her employer, by using bed sheets as a rope.
Juju was among Indonesian migrant workers who ever tried to escape from their employers.
Another Indonesian migrant worker, Ceriyati binti Dapin, tried to escape from her employer’s apartment in Malaysia in 2007 by tying together many clothes to make a long rope after she was physically abused for three-and-a-half months by her male employer.
She climbed down from the 15th floor to the 13th floor to seek help and escape.
