RIYADH, 16 June 2004 — A young Indonesian maid drank a glass of detergent and was dead on arrival in hospital early this week, the sixth Indonesian domestic help to commit suicide this year.
Djoko Santosa, a spokesman of the Indonesian Embassy, said yesterday that attempts to save the woman’s life failed because the solution had caused irreparable damage to her organs.
The body remains in police custody while an investigation is under way.
“A total of 32 deaths of Indonesian workers, mainly maids, were reported to the Indonesian Embassy so far this year. This also includes nearly six suicide cases involving housemaids,” Santosa said.
The growing number of suicides among Indonesian maids has raised an alarm among local workers and government agencies in Jakarta, sparking calls to ensure greater protection for Indonesian migrant workers.
He said the embassy and consulates prioritized compensation claims in cooperation with the Saudi government and employers.
Jakarta is also working to set up support groups in Saudi Arabia to provide more assistance to domestic workers.
“Indonesia will set up some 18 support groups in the Kingdom to safeguard the interests of its workers and monitor cases of harassment,” a recent Indonesian government report said.
The support groups will collect information about the workers and defend them within the framework of the local laws and regulations.
A number of Indonesian non-government agencies criticized a tide of reported abuses of maids and called for a halt to export of labor to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Malaysia.
Indonesian missions in the Kingdom receive daily requests for assistance from maids, at the rate of 10 a day at the embassy and five to seven a day at each of the consulates.
