Indonesia sends minister to Saudi Arabia to monitor tortured Indonesian maid case

[News_Editor]

Indonesia sends minister to Saudi Arabia to monitor tortured Indonesian maid case

2010-11-19 03:37:49 GMT+7 (ICT)

JAKARTA, INDONESIA (BNO NEWS) -- Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has ordered the State Minister for Women and Child Protection Linda Agum Gumelar to travel to Saudi Arabia in order to oversee the investigation into the torture of an Indonesian maid, officials said Thursday.

Sumiati binti Mustapa Salan, 23, of Dompo, Nusa Tengara Barat, migrated to Saudi Arabia in search work, but her case has caused international outrage as it highlights the human rights violations suffered by many Indonesian migrants in the middle east.

Sumiati was brutally tortured by the Khaled al-Salem Khamimisering family who hired her as her face shows several deep cuts on her lips, believed to be done with scissors. According to local media, she also head pieces of her skin cut off of her head and her body showed iron burns. The latest reports indicated she was stable at a local hospital.

Gumelar will be leading an inter-minister team that will be monitoring the condition and recovery of the victim, advocacy, legal protection, ensuring that the legal process is carried out quickly and according to law, as well as demanding human rights for victims of abuse.

Both Indonesia and Saudi Arabia have condemned the acts committed against Sumianti as both governments have vowed to work together to ensure the employers are punished.

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2010-11-19

[Humphrey Bear]

This looks like more than the usual bad treatment of domestic staff by Saudi (and other) families.

During my several tours in Saudi I encountered many cases of abuse. I reckon I personally helped around 200 filipina domestics to gain the shelter of their consular compounds and eventually get repatriated.

But when one considers the many thousands of domestic workers in Saudi, the abuse is of only a small proportion.

The problems lie with the agencies that send people to domestic situations without proper investigation of the conditions and without regular follow-up visits. Also for many domestic workers it is difficult to get out and meet their compatriots and compare conditions. In Hong Kong on a Sunday one could see thousands of filipinas meeting in Statue Square, the place sounds worse than a starling colony at dusk.

But in Saudi many girls have their passports taken away, mobile phones confiscated, are expected to work seven days a week, dawn to dusk and later. Maybe not hard work, but it is constant work. Physical abuse is quickly applied when a newly arrived girl fails to understand what her employer wants her to do (hand-wash instead of using the washing m/c; ironing garments in a certain way; cooking in a certain way; making beds in the morning, again in the afternoon; so on). This leads to unhappiness and resentment, but the girl faces a financial penalty as it is early in her tour, so she says nothing, but will not be content in her position. I also encountered several cases of sexual abuse, but this is not common unless there are teenage children in the household. Then they think they can do anything, as they are the employer family.

One must further remember that slavery was not against the law in Saudi until the 1960s and I still encountered slaves in families in the late 1970s. Probably there are still slaves in some of the remoter districts. It is hard for these people to distinguish between a slave and a domestic worker - the only difference in their eyes is that they have to pay an agent for the domestic worker every month, while they had to pay an agent a far larger sum (once) for a slave.

As I said at the start, the agencies supplying the domestic workers should do more follow-ups, should ensure that communications for the worker are secure and private and that there is a 'get-out' clause in all contracts. A black-list of abusive employers wouldn't be a bad thing either.

Edited November 19, 2010 by Humphrey Bear

[rgs2001uk]

Two things stand out here,

"migrated to Saudi Arabia in search work"

you dont legally migrate to Saudi in search of work, she probably went over on an Umrah visa found illegal employment and overstayed.

I heard a few years ago the going rate to get an exit visa was 6,000 SAR no questions asked.

Not that it makes any difference, but, Khaled al-Salem Khamimisering doesnt sound like any Saudi name I ever heard of, more likely mistreated by one of her fellow countrymen.

"the State Minister for Women and Child Protection Linda Agum Gumelar to travel to Saudi Arabia" when she gets there she may well find the problems start in her own country by these people being recruited by unscrupulous agents, no network in place to offer support.