RIYADH, 31 August 2003 — More than 250 Indonesian housemaids, including 68 currently at the embassy-run temporary shelter, are awaiting deportation. Twenty-eight of the maids will be repatriated to Indonesia within a few days, according to senior Indonesian diplomats.
At the same time, Jakarta has raised recruitment fees for Indonesian maids amid growing protests from Saudi Arabia. Indonesian Ambassador Muhammad M. Basyuni told Arab News, “The Saudi protest against the hike in recruitment fees for Indonesian maids has nothing to do with the Indonesian government. These are private sector recruiting agents who have raised the recruitment charges on their own. It is a collective decision on the part of the Association of Recruitment Agents in Indonesia, an private sector body.”
The ambassador pointed out the improving cordial relations between Riyadh and Jakarta, saying that the Indonesian minister of Islamic affairs would visit the Kingdom on Sept. 16 to discuss Haj arrangements.
Referring to media reports of Saudi annoyance after the increase in recruitment fees, he said: “The government receives no benefit from the hike in recruitment charges.”
“The recruitment agencies in Indonesia can be persuaded to sit with relevant private and government agencies and work out a compromise which will be mutually beneficial to both parties,” said Indonesian Labor Attache M. Sugiarto.
The officer said, however, that there had been several reports of harassment of Indonesian maids by Saudi employers. “The embassy in Riyadh has been receiving nearly 10 complaints every day from maids while the Indonesian consulate in Jeddah has been handling some five to seven complaints daily basis,” Sugiarto explained.
“Nearly 90 percent of the complaints are related to sexual harassment,” said the diplomat. He pointed out that cases of sexual abuse have decreased this year. Sixty percent of the complaints at the embassy were related to non-payment of salaries. Twelve percent of the maids who come to the embassy seeking help say that they have been verbally abused by the wives of their employers or by the employers themselves while slightly more than two percent complain of extra work without any compensation.
Asked about measures to ensure better maid-sponsor relations, the diplomat said that Jakarta was working to improve the recruitment system which will minimize the exploitation of its female work force. A strong initiative to train the female work force has already been taken, he said.
More than 250,000 maids are currently working in Saudi Arabia. The recruitment agencies recently raised its recruitment charges from SR2,800 to SR3,500 per worker.
Asked about the impact of the increase, a local recruitment agent, Hassan Abdul Kalam of Globe Manpower Agency, said: “This will damage relations between the Kingdom and Indonesia. The decision has not been welcomed in Saudi Arabia, an ally and fellow Islamic country which has been possibly the largest importer of female manpower from the archipelago state.”
Similar opinions were also expressed by many local recruitment agents in Saudi Arabia. An spokesman of the Al-Rakeeb Recruitment Company said that Saudis would no longer hire Indonesian maids as they now had other options.
“All labor recruitment offices, including the chamber of commerce and industry, have taken a unified stand, rejecting the latest fees imposed by the agencies on the Indonesian maids,” he said.
