Migrant Worker Moratorium Is On Until Deal Signed with Saudi Arabia

Jakarta Globe, Dessy Sagita | July 30, 2011

Indonesian women having their pictures taken at immigration in Tangerang,
 Banten. Some 15,000 women have been going to Saudi Arabia every month
to work as maids. A ban on maids' employment in the Middle Eastern state
starting on Monday is likely to affect millions. (Reuters Photo) 

      

Related articles

• Maid Family Demands Second Autopsy as Body Flown to Indonesia
• Indonesian Govt Asks Saudis for Hajj Quota Increase
• Doubts Over Impact of Migrant Worker Plan
• Malaysians Welcome Direct Indonesian Maid Hiring
• Media Frenzy Greets Maid Rescued From Beheading

The government will press ahead with its plan to keep migrant workers from being sent to Saudi Arabia until an agreement on their protection is reached.

“Starting August 1, we will no longer allow informal workers to work in Saudi Arabia until a memorandum of understanding regarding their protection is signed,” Suhartono, a spokesman for the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry, said on Friday.

The moratorium was officially announced last month by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, shortly after an Indonesian worker in Saudi Arabia, Ruyati binti Sapubi, 54, was executed by beheading on June 18.

She had been convicted of killing her Saudi employer, who she said had abused her.

Yudhoyono denounced the beheading and accused the Saudi government of breaking the “norms and manners” of international relations. The Saudis did not notify Indonesian diplomats of the execution beforehand.

But Riyadh a few days after Jakarta announced the moratorium plan, said that it would no longer issue visas for Indonesian and Filipino workers.

“Before January 2011, we sent 40,000 to 50,000 maids to Saudi Arabia every month,” Suhartono said. “After that the number declined to 15,000 people a month, and now we are going to stop sending workers completely.”

He said the embargo would only affect domestic workers, not skilled workers. Meanwhile, he said, the government will focus on sending workers to countries like Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, where they have protection.

He said the government was aware that the embargo could see more workers traveling to a third country and entering Saudi Arabia illegally by land.

“We will have to work harder to monitor agencies, to make sure they don’t send workers illegally,” he said.

Suhartono did not offer any information on when an agreement would be signed, saying only that were many issues to be settled first.

Anis Hidayah, who heads the advocacy organization Migrant Care, said that with no date set for the agreement, the government needed to step up its monitoring of the embargo.

“We need to take stricter action in case the discussions go nowhere,” she said.

Anis said she feared that the agreement with Saudi Arabia would go the same way as the proposed worker protection deal with Malaysia, which has been in limbo for more than two years.

“Even when most issues had been settled, both countries argued about one thing for months,” she said. “I’m afraid the same thing will happen with Saudi Arabia if we don’t set a target.”

The sticking point in the negotiations with Malaysia has been reaching an accord on a minimum wage for Indonesian workers there.