Domestic Workers Moratorium: Who Will Feed Their Children?

Written By Christina Dhea (101214062) Moratorium1 of sending migrant domestic workers must be obeyed because domestic workers in Saudi Arabia are not being protected under specific law so that many bad treatments may be occured. Moreover, Asian embassies report thousands of complaints each year from domestic workers forced to work 15-20 hours a day, seven days a week, and denied their salaries. Domestic workers frequently endure forced confinement; food deprivation; and severe psychological, physical, and sexual abuse (Human Rights Watch, 2011). In this essay, I am going to explain the reasons why moratorium of sending migrant domestic workers to Saudi Arabia must be obeyed. Some people may argue that moratorium is another instant wayout made by Indonesian government to muffle publics anger. However, we could not blame the government in one shoulder because there are many factors which make this situation complicated. Indonesian government hopes to stop sending unskilled domestic workers by 2017. During this time, the government fix many things such as makes MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) with Saudi Arabia in order to improve their law. The government also provide 24-hours TKW call center which is toll-free. The spread of legal agencies in some regions are very helpful to train the domestic workers before they go abroad so that they will be more skilled and adaptative. Opponents of obeying this moratorium claimed that it will increase the poverty in Indonesia. Arguing this way of thinking, it is obviously proven that those who disagree are not considering more about the destination country. The moratorium is being applied only in Saudi Arabia, not all countries. Indonesia sends a lot of migrant domestic workers to another destination countries such as Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, and Hongkong. Even in those countries, domestic workers will get better living and protection. For example, based on data provided by http://siteresources.worldbank.org, in Hong Kong they will receive HK$ 3,670 (3,930,570 rupiahs) while in Saudi Arabia is SR 600 (1,342,200 rupiahs). Therefore, those who work in informal sectors as domestic workers still have chance to work abroad except Saudi Arabia. Beside, Indonesian government provides 15 billion rupiahs to help domestic workers who are affected by this moratorium.

A suspension of an ongoing activity (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/moratorium).

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Some people may disagree with this idea. They object this idea because they think Indonesian government will not send domestic migrant workers to Saudi Arabia permanently. In fact, this moratorium is made temporarily based on some law reasons. It will be suspended until Saudi Arabia makes up their labor protection law. Saudi law specifically excludes the estimated 1.5 million, mostly Asian, domestic workers from protections of the labor law (Human Rights Watch, 2010). They work in households, which are not considered workplaces, and they work for private persons, who are not considered employers so that they are excluded from any other national law. Once they do a mistake or criminal behavior, they must deal with death penalty which is mostly without notification for countries of origin first. Tragically, in many cases female domestic workers accidentally killed their employers because they are sexually abuse and it is a kind of self-defense action. However, Saudi law practically considered them as murderer so they must pay for blood money or they will be killed. This lack of labor law protection leads the Indonesian government to publish this moratorium. Those who disagree may instantly conclude that bad treatments occurs in small numbers of domestic workers and the victim could sue for justice. For unskilled workers, legal action against their employers is nearly impossible and their ability to escape is difficult. As noted, employers frequently confiscate their employees passport and if a migrant worker is stopped outside the home without proper documentation, they can be arrested as undocumented aliens and forced to pay a large sum (Wikigender, 2011). It become severe because 90% of Indonesian domestic workers in Saudi Arabia is women. Women need more legal protection and access to services during their stay. A large number of female domestic workers mentioned they are vulnerable to sexual abuse by their male employers, who are often also their visa sponsors (Migration Information, 2005). Briefly, moratorium of sending migrant domestic workers must be obeyed because Indonesian domestic workers in Saudi Arabia have higher risk of mistreated since Saudi law excluded them from labor protection law.

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