A few months ago, Indonesian President Joko Widodo had issued an order to explore the prospect of stopping Indonesian women from going abroad to take up jobs as domestic workers. The president hoped that all the Indonesian housemaids working in various countries would return home for good by 2017. The world's most populous Muslim nation received the presidential directive warmly. Widodo had ordered the manpower ministry to come up with a “clear road map” on when Indonesia could stop providing domestic helpers to other countries. He said the practice of Indonesian women going overseas to work as housemaids must stop immediately to preserve the country's pride and dignity. It seems that the main reason for the move to stop sending domestic workers abroad is the lack of rules and regulations that regulate the relations between the domestic workers on one side and the employers and manpower recruiting agencies on the other side, especially with regard to protecting the material and moral rights of both sides. The proposed ban is expected to cover housemaids working in more than 20 countries, especially Saudi Arabia and other Gulf States as well as Egypt and Jordan. The Indonesian government's move is not going to make most of the Saudi families happy at a time when they are anticipating a decision from Jakarta to continue allowing its people to go abroad to work as domestic workers. There is no doubt that Indonesian women have proved they are the best among the housemaids working with the Saudi families. Since several years, Saudi Arabia has ceased hiring Indonesian domestic workers mainly because of the tough conditions set by that government. Jakarta reportedly was forced to introduce such restrictions due to the mistreatment of their housemaids in some countries. However, the Saudi Ministry of Labor was not in a position to agree to those conditions and hence it halted recruitment from Indonesia. Later, the ministry entered into new negotiations with Jakarta in a bid to find ways of relaxing these conditions. I had written earlier in this column about the problems faced by the Indonesian housemaids in general mainly because of the mistreatment at the hands of some Saudi householders. This mistreatment included forcing to work for long hours starting from dawn until midnight or assign them jobs that are beyond their capacity. I do not want to generalize this. Of course, there are some families who consider their housemaid as one of their family members and treat them accordingly. They provide them enough time to take rest. However, there are several families where these housemaids are mistreated and worked to the bone. This forced a large number of housemaids to run away from houses of their sponsors. Sometimes, this might end up in tragedies. Some householders do not allow their domestic help to go out and this makes them resort to the dire action of jumping out of the window to escape. In some cases this may end up in their deaths or sustaining serious injuries leading sometimes to permanent disability. There are several agents who lure these disgruntled domestic help. These agents offer them shelter and then try to help them find jobs with families other than their sponsors where most often they get higher pay. Subsequently, this creates a flourishing black market for housemaids. And the agents in collusion with some of the runaway maids run the black market. Similar is the case with house drivers. There are many such drivers who run away from their sponsors and work at households other than their sponsors. These agents help them find jobs at higher salaries than what they had gotten from their sponsors. The Kingdom's labor rules and regulations forbid all such practices, and slap huge amount of money in fine against the violators. Despite the stringent provisions in the labor law against the violators, these agents are engaged in this thriving illegal trade of encouraging domestic workers to run away from their sponsors, giving them shelter and finding jobs at some other house. Who are to blame for the flourishing black market for domestic help? In my opinion, the first to be blamed for this are Saudi families who are ready to entertain runaway maids or drivers by providing them with jobs. These families accept them with full knowledge that their sponsors had spent thousands of riyals to hire them. There are also some families who resort to this practice in the event of their housemaids running away. Instead of adopting the tough task of approaching the concerned authorities to find out the runaway domestic help, these families seek the help of agents to arrange them housemaids or drivers who escaped from their sponsors. There is no doubt that the directive of the Indonesian President Widodo to stop women going abroad to work as domestic workers and bring those working as housemaids back home is a wise decision in regards to safeguarding their rights and preventing them from being subjected to any mistreatment, and thus preserving the dignity and honor of the people of his country irrespective of the financial losses incurred by it. At the same time, I request the Saudi men and women to shoulder their household responsibilities and reduce their dependence on foreign domestic help as much as possible. If they find it indispensable to hire a housemaid or driver, then they have to treat them fairly and don't force them to do excessive work. They have also to give them their rights in full. The households should always be careful and keen on behaving with them fairly in accordance with the following Saying of the Prophet (peace be upon him). “They are your brothers (the slaves and servants). Allah has placed them under your authority. So he who has a brother under him should feed him and clothe him as he himself does, and should not take from him any work that is beyond his power. If he does tell him to do such work then he should also join in it (and help him).” — Dr. Ali Al-Ghamdi is a former Saudi diplomat who specializes in Southeast Asian affairs. He can be reached at [email protected]
