The Indonesian government has finalized a draft of the contract it wants all Saudi sponsors to sign before lifting its ban and allowing its domestic workers to return to the Kingdom, said Hendrar Pramudyo, an official at the Indonesian Embassy. Pramudyo told Saudi Gazette recently that the contract has been delivered to the Saudi Ministry of Labor for its response. A major requirement in the contract is for all Saudi sponsors to submit a compulsory “good conduct” report from the Kingdom's police before they can employ Indonesian domestic workers. The governments of Indonesia and the Philippines have been demanding that their workers be protected under International Labor Organization (ILO) regulations which have been ratified by Saudi Arabia. This comes after a number of high-profile cases involving abuse of some female domestic workers in this country. Pramudyo said the Indonesian government “wants a guarantee from the receiving country that the rights of our nationals will be protected appropriately by local law, in accordance with international standards”. The “good conduct” report has to be based on local police records, he added. “We appreciate that the majority of Saudi sponsors conduct themselves in a good manner. This requirement is actually addressed to those sponsors who have previously committed human rights violations by abusing their domestic workers.” The proposed contract requires a sketch of the sponsor's house, photographs of family members, a copy of the sponsor's identity document and photographs of the iqamas of any other workers in the house. The sponsor also needs to have a minimum of SR6,000 if he wants a domestic worker, SR8,000 for a driver, SR12,000 for a married domestic worker and driver, and SR14,000 for a driver and a domestic worker who are not married. The sponsor also needs to sign an authorization that the Indonesian consulate will be solving any disputes between workers and sponsors. Ratification of the contract must be done by the Indonesian consulate. Pramudyo added that “the moratorium imposed by the government of Indonesia since August, 2011 [preventing Indonesian workers taking up employment in the Kingdom] will remain in place until Continued from P1 both governments sign a Memorandum of Understanding to protect Indonesian domestic workers in this country”. The Saudi Ministry of Labor also issued its own ban and criticized the demands of the Indonesian and Philippine governments. Ali Al-Qurashi, a member of the labor recruitment committee at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said that some of the demands of the Indonesian government caused the dispute, especially regarding requests for photographs of Saudi family members. “I believe, however, this issue will be resolved soon because Saudi Arabia already protects the rights of workers.” Meanwhile, Al-Qurashi said Saudis are recruiting domestic workers from Ethiopia but “its workers need training”. Other countries include Kenya which is not popular because its workers are not Muslim. Moroccan workers are available but the visas are expensive and domestic workers from that country are not preferred by Saudi families. Indonesian media estimated recently that there are 1.2 million Indonesian workers in Saudi Arabia. With a ban in place, Indonesia is losing about SR1.5 billion a month. Previously a total of 20,000 workers of both genders arrived in the Kingdom from Indonesia every month. __
