INDONESIA
The Jakarta Post-Feb 21
“Acknowledging that migrant workers are a driving force of economic growth in ASEAN, the ASEAN Consensus on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers ensures the rights of migrant workers to decent work, fair treatment, justice, ethical recruitment, skills training and development and information, including labor market information.”
Such were the noble words of the “historic” document signed on Nov. 14 by ASEAN leaders, and that marked another diplomatic coup by Indonesia, which had persuasively pushed for the agreement. Though non-binding and far from effective in its early days, it should at least serve as a benchmark for all ASEAN governments on the standard protection of migrant workers we send and receive.
The document’s basic message clearly manifests ASEAN’s slogan of its “caring and sharing community”. Yet only a few months after the signing ceremony, Indonesia is considering a moratorium against sending maids to Malaysia following the death of yet another domestic worker on Feb. 11. The family of Adelina Lisao, 21, who received her coffin in her village in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), became the latest to lose a beloved daughter.
According to Migrant Care, nine migrant workers from the province have died since the New Year, while 62 others returned in coffins to NTT last year from various countries.
The persistent search for work overseas despite little guarantee of protection and despite the scores of workers involved, most of whom are young women, shows the urgent need for a thorough, swift examination of how to better guarantee the safe deployment of migrant workers.
In the hands of “monster employers”, as one editorial in a Malaysian newspaper described them, Adelina was starved and forced to sleep with the family Rottweiler on the terrace. In the wake of her death, now is the right — though belated — time to resume talks with the neighboring government over our expired memorandum of understanding (MoU) regarding migrant workers.
But besides such bilateral MoUs, which only last two years and through which we seek better protection for our workers, Indonesia still has much to do.
With the Law on Migrant Workers’ Protection passed just last November, the commitment to protect our own citizens’ basic rights to life is yet to be visible. The law puts larger responsibilities on local governments through their one-stop services for aspiring migrant workers to prevent their exploitation by illegal brokers, irresponsible labor recruitment companies and human traffickers.
Indonesia has been sending migrant workers abroad since the 1980s, but efforts to better guarantee their safety have been slow. Researchers and activists have pointed to a fundamental explanation: little regard for poor women who are considered unskilled and are even blamed for their ignorance and frequent misunderstanding of instructions, which supposedly provoke employers’ frustrations.
This mindset has shaped generations who believe maids should just be grateful to work and live in nice houses. It’s no wonder that the bill on domestic workers is no longer a priority among lawmakers.
(First published in The Jakarta Post – http://www.thejakartapost.com/academia/2018/02/21/editorial-another-migrants-death.html)
