Skip to main content

Tragic fate of Indonesian women workers in Arab countries

An Indonesian maid badly beaten by her Saudi employer is recovering but faces more operations, an Indonesian diplomat said on Saturday, as the Saudi labour ministry said it regretted the case.

Members of Migrant Care Indonesia protest over the torture of domestic worker Sumiati Binti Salan Mustapa, outside the Saudi Arabian embassy in Jakarta on November 19. An Indonesian maid badly beaten by her Saudi employer is recovering but faces more operations, an Indonesian diplomat said on Saturday, as the Saudi labour ministry said it regretted the case. 

Sumiati Binti Salan Mustapa, 23, remains in hospital in Medina but faces more operations after being found two weeks ago suffering from stab wounds, burns to her scalp and other injuries from an abusive employer, said Diddi Wahyudi, an official of the Indonesian consulate in Jeddah.

"Sumiati is recovering now. She is in a good state of health... her appetite is good," Wahyudi told AFP.

"But she needs to be operated on at least once again, on her abdomen," he added.

The case shocked and outraged rights groups and labour activists as another example of the paucity of protection for millions of mostly Asian domestic workers, especially in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states.

Her employer, a Saudi woman who has since been arrested, allegedly beat the maid, causing internal bleeding and broken bones, put a hot iron to her head and stabbed and slashed her with scissors.

On Saturday Saudi Arabia's labour ministry said in a statement it was sorry about the case, but called it an isolated incident.

"The ministry expresses its regret for what happened to the Indonesian woman Sumiati," it said in a statement on the official SPA news agency.

"What happened is an individual case and it should not be generalised. "

"There are more than 670,000 domestic workers of all nationalities in the kingdom and they enjoy full rights. Such individual cases are offensive to everyone," it said.

Sumiati was visited in her Medina hospital room on Thursday and Friday by Indonesian state minister for women's empowerment and child protection, Linda Agum Gumelar.

Wahyudi said Sumiati is still seeking her pay and other benefits from several months of employment in Saudi Arabia.

"She has nothing, she does not even have a single abaya," Wahyudi said of the black cloak that all women in Saudi Arabia must wear in public.

"She wants her employer to be punished severely," he added.

He said the Indonesian government was still pursuing the case of another Indonesian maid, Kikim Komalasari, whose beaten body was found near Abha earlier this month.

Two people, her employers, have been arrested in that case, Wahyudi said.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Greenpeace boycott Palm oil products Duta Palma

Environmental organization Greenpeace India has demanded that all Indian palm oil importers and corporate consumers immediately stop palm oil sourcing from Indonesian companies like Duta Palma who make palm oil by destroying forests and tiger habitat in Indonesia. An investigative report issued by Greenpeace Indonesia released on Thursday links India's growing palm oil imports and corporate apathy to Duta Palma's destruction of hundreds of acres of Indonesian rainforests and tiger habitat in complete disregard of Indonesian government&# 39;s moratorium on such activities in the rainforest. Big Indian corporates like Ruchi Soya, Adani -Wilmar, Godrej Industries, Parle, Britannia are among many who use Indonesian palm oil in their products on a large scale.  "Duta Palma's dirty oil could well be entering into their supply chains. Yet, so far, no Indian company has taken any visible steps to clean up their supply chain, to delink their brands from the ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Australia acknowledge INDONESIAN not a terrorist state

INDONESIA, the world's most populous Muslim nation and the site of more Australian deaths at the hands of terrorists than any other country, will not be included in a list of 10 countries targeted for toughened visa screening rules aimed at thwarting terror attacks. As Kevin Rudd released his government's long-awaited counter-terrorism white paper yesterday, The Australian has learnt that Indonesia, Pakistan and India will not be among the 10 countries singled out for for toughened visa screening. This is despite those countries playing host to the overwhelming number of regional terror attacks.Yemen and Somalia -- identified in the white paper as the emerging epicentres of radical Islamic terrorism -- will be included.The white paper fingers home grown extremists -- as opposed to transnational groups such as al-Qa'ida -- as the main terror threat now confronting Australia.The Prime Minister said the threat of terrorism had become a "persistent and permanent feature...
Post a Comment
Read more

Achievement of Indonesian police, corrupt

Indonesia's notoriously corrupt National Police are back in hot water after a former tax official supposedly under lock and key while awaiting trial for corruption and bribery charges was photographed by a sharp-eyed Jakarta Globe photographer at a Bali tennis match. The publication of the Globe's photos of Gayus Tambunan, wearing a wig and eyeglasses, led to nearly a week of denials that Tambunan, a mid-ranking official who is accused of paying billions of rupiah in bribes to judges, prosecutors and police, had ever been out of his prison cell. Adj. Cmdr Ketut Budiman said in a text message to reporters: "Where do these rumors come from? Gayus is still inside his cell and I have confirmed this with the security unit. This allegation is totally groundless."   Another official said Tambunan was "in the custody of the district court and any leave by the defendant must first be approved by prosecutors. " Tambunan's lawyer said it couldn't have been...
Post a Comment
Read more