Repatriated Migrants Say ‘Never Again’ To Saudi Arabia

Jakarta Globe, Fitri R., May 09, 2011

Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara. Indonesian migrant workers from West Nusa Tenggara expressed relief and happiness upon returning home on Friday, after having spent months surviving without work in Saudi Arabia.

“I am very happy to be back. I felt exhausted abroad, living in uncertainty and chased [by the local authorities],” said Novi, a mother of two from Spakek, Central Lombok.

Novi was one of 2,349 migrant workers who were repatriated by the government on Thursday. Of those, 163 were from West Nusa Tenggara. Many of them had been living under a bridge in the city of Jeddah, penniless and with little chance of improving their own lot.

The migrant workers had been forced into their desperate conditions after overstaying their visas and encountering problems related to their employment contracts. Some of them misused minor hajj visas to work in the country.

The government began repatriating the workers this year, first by plane and then by state-chartered ships. Novi’s group was the last to leave Jeddah.

When asked whether she would consider going back to Saudi Arabia to work, Novi replied, “Never again.”

She said a private worker placement agency had sent her to Saudi Arabia in February 2010 to work for a family in Medina.

She said had been promised a salary of 800 riyals ($215) a month for cleaning the house and looking after her employer’s six children. But over the next two months she would only receive half of what she had been promised. She also described a tense relationship with the mother of the family, who insisted Novi wear a head-to-toe abaya.

“[The women] are the jealous kind. They feel threatened by us foreign workers. They said their husbands like Indonesian women,” she said.

After two months, she fled, using her last 400 riyals to take a taxi to an Indonesian hajj dormitory. Novi said her daily life over the course of the next year was dominated by fear.

“Every day I felt scared that the authorities would arrest me for escaping from my employer.”

Numerous workers returning from Saudi Arabia have reported being beaten or raped. Many more have complained that they were underpaid for their work.

Some of the woman who returned to West Nusa Tenggara with Novi were pregnant, an official said.

“There are 15 who came back pregnant. We do not have the official statement of why they are pregnant. We do not know if they were married in Saudi Arabia or if they were raped or any other reason. We will find out,” said Muchlish, head of the province’s manpower department.

Another returning worker, Martini, from Pujut village in Central Lombok, said that while she was not beaten in her year spent working in the eastern port city of Dammam, she was overworked and paid 25 percent less per month than she had been promised.

Like Novi, she ran from her employer and hid in a boarding house where her cousin stayed until she heard of the government’s repatriation plan.

“I didn’t bring anything home,” Martini said. “No presents, no money, only my clothes. But I am grateful to be back home and reunite with my family.”

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