RIYADH, 16 September — More than 250 Indonesian housemaids are currently stranded in a temporary shelter here awaiting deportation.
Their cases, which must be settled before their repatriation, are still pending with no sign of immediate settlement as they have to undergo a cumbersome process of scrutiny by the police department, labor department and Indonesian Embassy.
In most cases, their Saudi sponsors are either not responding to official calls made by relevant departments and the embassy or they are absent, said M Sugiarto, labor attache at the Indonesian Embassy here. Sugiarto said that 60 percent of all complaints received at the embassy are from Indonesian maids.
About nine percent of the complaints filed by maids at the embassy are related to sexual abuse and harsh treatment at the hands of the sponsors. Male sexual abuse alone accounted for two percent of the cases There are over 169,000 Indonesian housemaids in the 25-40 age group currently working in Saudi Arabia. Most of them are working under individual Saudi sponsors.
Referring to plans to repatriate the housemaids, Sugiarto said that the mission has been in contact with the Ministry of Interior to process their travel documents. Their repatriation is delayed because most of them are runaway maids, who have also been blamed by their sponsors or have other obligations. Cases of complaints of sponsors have to be resolved before they can board a plane back home, he said.
The embassy has been coordinating with governmentagencies for their immediate repatriation. Though nine percent of the complaints lodged by the maids are related to sexual abuse and harsh treatment, the labor attache said there was no plan to phase out Indonesian housemaids from this country. Instead, he called for imposing tighter restrictions on employers and recruiting agents.
He said 12 percent of the complaints pertained to housewives using foul language. In order to reduce the number of incidents of physical harassment, he said the embassy had recommended increasing the minimum recruitment age of Indonesian maids from 25 years to 30 years.
He also suggested that the minimum salary be raised from SR500 to SR700 per month for an Indonesian maid. This should be in addition to suitable accommodation, air ticket and vacation. He said new regulations must be introduced soon to monitor the activities of recruiting agents in Saudi Arabia and Indonesia, who, he said, have also been playing foul during the whole process of hiring maids.
New regulations, which are currently under discussion, should also ensure that maids to be deployed in a foreign country must be adequately educated and trained for the job and should be matured enough to imbibe the culture and family traditions in the foreign country concerned.
The Kingdom is home to more than 500,000 Indonesian workers, including housemaids.
