Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – Dozens of Indonesian maids working in Saudi Arabia and Malaysia have fled their jobs due to sexual harassment or violence at the hands of their employers, a non-governmental organisation says.

At least 23 maids from Lombok province alone had returned home in the past few months complaining they had been raped or sexually harassed by their employers, said Mrs Endang Susilowati of the Panca Karsa Foundation, an organisation assisting Indonesian migrant workers.

In one case, a woman from a village in the province was raped by her employer's son. As her employer had not paid her salary, she was forced to work for another family to earn money for her airfare back home.

Mrs Endang said there was no legal recourse for these women as it was almost impossible to prove that sexual abuse had taken place and many of the women did not report the abuse until they had returned home.

At least another 40 workers from Lombok, mostly women, had disappeared in Malaysia and Saudi Arabia, said Panca Karsa. It is not known whether these women have married overseas or died and their deaths have gone unreported.

Many of the maids were easily exploited by both their employers and the employment agencies as they did not know the language of countries such as Saudi Arabia or knew their rights, said Mr Singgih Darjo Atmadja of the Centre for Indonesian Migrant Workers.

He said he had received complaints from at least 500 foreign worker over sexual harassment, violent employers or non-payment of full salaries.

He said working conditions for maids in Saudi Arabia were often the harshest because the women had little idea of the culture they were entering and were isolated from other foreign maids, and because Saudis expected them to carry out whatever task was demanded.

The plight of Indonesian maids working in the Middle East has made headlines here as a number of Indonesian women have been executed or narrowly avoided execution in Saudi Arabia for committing adultery. The maids often claimed they had been raped.

Mr Singgih pointed out that Indonesian maids earned huge foreign currency for their country. In 1998 alone, Indonesians working overseas brought US$3.93 billion into the country.

But the government had done little to protect their rights, he said. Migrant workers have almost no protection and usually no one to turn to when they encounter problems overseas.

There is no legal protection for foreign workers and Indonesia's embassies lack a labour attache to negotiate for the workers' conditions.