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Send to friendJAKARTA, 11 August 2009 (IRIN) - Public
outcry over an Indonesian domestic worker's alleged abuse by her
Malaysian employer has prompted the Indonesian government to demand
better protection for its citizens working in the neighbouring country.
With
red blisters and scabs on her face and upper body, Siti Hajar fled her
employer's house and sought shelter at the Indonesian embassy in the
Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, in June.
Hajar told the media
her female employer had hit her and poured boiling water over her and
repeatedly beaten her with a cane over a 34-month period. Her
ex-employer has since been charged and could face 20 years in prison.
Her story of abuse is one of several involving Indonesians in Malaysia that have made headlines in recent years.
Last
year, in a high-profile case that began in 2004, a Malaysian court
sentenced a housewife to 18 years in prison for three attacks on her
Indonesian domestic worker, Nirmala Bonat, using an iron and boiling
water.
Protective measures
After Hajar's
story made the headlines in June, Indonesia's Ministry of Manpower and
Transmigration temporarily suspended sending domestic workers to
Malaysia until the two countries could agree measures to protect them.
Indonesian
and Malaysian officials have since met to discuss a revision of a 2006
Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on domestic workers.
The MoU
has been criticized by human rights advocates for not being strong
enough to protect workers from abuse, including having to work
gruelling hours for low salaries.
The Indonesian government
wants a new agreement that entitles domestic workers to basic rights
such as days off and periodic salary increases, and allows them to
retain their passports. Under the current MoU, employers have the right
to hold employees' passports while the workers are given identity cards
issued by Malaysian authorities.
Indonesia's Foreign Minister
Hassan Wirajuda said Malaysia had agreed in principle to meet the
demands. "There is progress but we will need to put it in a written
document."
About two million Indonesians work in Malaysia, many
as domestic helpers and plantation labourers. Indonesian migrant
workers sent home US$8.2 billion in 2008, according to the National
Agency for the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Workers, making
remittances one of the country's top foreign-exchange earners.
Rights begin at home
Rights
activists pointed out that part of the problem was that Indonesian
migrant workers were not adequately protected in their own country and
blamed poor regulation.
"Malaysia is not 100 percent to blame in
this case," said Anis Hidayah, executive director of Migrant Care,
which lobbies for Indonesian workers' rights overseas. "There should be
changes in both countries' labour laws."
In a report this year,
Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged the Indonesian government to establish
the standards at home that it demands from others.
"Those
considered formal workers in Indonesia are entitled to a minimum wage,
overtime pay, an eight-hour workday and 40-hour work week, a weekly day
of rest, and vacation. Domestic workers are not," according to HRW.
Albert
Bonasahat, coordinator for migrant worker protection at the
International Labour Organization in Jakarta, said Indonesia would be
better placed to bargain in negotiations with Malaysia if it passed its
own legislation to protect domestic workers at home. "We should treat
our workers at home the way we want them treated overseas."
Hidayah
said her group had received thousands of complaints from domestic
workers in Malaysia and that most cases of abuse went unreported.
"Even
for cases reported by the media, the majority of them didn't reach
clear legal resolution and in some cases they stopped at the
investigation stage," she said.
atp/jk/mw
Source: UNHCR
