Indonesian Worker in Taiwan Paralyzed After Alleged Abuse

Jakarta Globe, Markus Junianto Sihaloho, January 27, 2014

Indonesian worker Sihatul Alfiah.
 (Photo courtesy of Indonesia
Migrant Care)

An Indonesian migrant worker was left paralyzed and unable to speak after enduring torture at the hands of her Taiwanese employer, according to a member of the House of Representatives’ commission on manpower and labor issues.

Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) lawmaker Rieke Dyah Pitaloka, of Commission IX, said at a press conference on Monday that Sihatul Alfiah, 27 — from Banyuwangi, East Java — left for Taiwan in 2012 as a legal migrant worker through maid agency Sinergi Binakarya to work as a caretaker for the elderly.

But when she arrived in Taiwan, Rieke said, she was told to milk cows and clean a cowshed outside Liouying, Tainan City, in addition to her caretaking responsibilities.

She  cleaned the cowshed, which housed 300 cows, every day from 3 a.m. to 10 a.m. before moving on to her next job, which ran from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Rieke said that Sihatul was often tortured by her employer, Huang Deng Jin.

Sihatul reported the abuse, he said, prompting the agency to meet with her employer, which only exacerbated the problem.

“When calling us at home, [Sihatul] said that her employer often became outraged,” Sihatul’s mother Sutiah said, according to news portal Tribunnews.com. “When she was angry, she often slapped and kicked her. But I was informed that my daughter was in a coma because of her weak heart.”

On Sept. 21, 2013, Sihatul fell into a coma after being beaten with a blunt object, according to Rieke’s account. She was taken to Chimney Iyen Tainan hospital in Liouying, where a doctor found injuries on the back part of her head.

A month later, she woke up from the coma fully paralyzed and unable to speak and in the care of a nursing home.

Doctors informed the Indonesian government that her condition was the result of heart disease.

Suhandik, Sihatul’s husband, said that he did not know why his wife was no longer receiving treatment in a hospital.

“What I know is my wife has no history of heart disease, and she was often tortured by her employer,” he said.

The director of Indonesian citizen protection at the Foreign Affairs Ministry denied that Sihatul had experienced abuse.

After receiving a report by Sihatul’s brother, Saipul, about the alleged torture, the ministry asked the Indonesian Commerce and Economy Body (KDEI) to look into the possibility of abuse.

“There was a meeting between the employer, an agent and the police,” Tatang said. “No solution was found in the mediation because the employer denied that she had violated the contract.”

Tatang said that doctors found no evidence of abuse, contrary to Rieke’s and Sihatul’s family’s accounts.

Indonesia Migrant Care accused the National Agency for the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Workers (BNP2TKI) of circumventing the legal process in dealing with the employer and work agency through mediation rather than in court.

“BNP2TKI secretly conducted mediation between the family of the victim and the work agency and agreed not to involve civil organizations in this case,” Anis Hidayah, director of Migrant Care, said on Monday.

Anis said that Migrant Care had received a report that a BNP2TKI representative in Taiwan had tried to mediate privately between the victim and the employer, asking the employer to pay for hospital expenses rather than perusing charges through the local legal system, despite the fact that Sihatul’s brother had filed a police report in Taiwan.

“Therefore, we urge all sides to solve this case thoroughly,” Anis said.