Jakarta – Five years after entering into a legal process against her employer, Marni Abyim, 25, was finally awarded a payout.
Working as a maid in Malaysia, Marni filed a lawsuit on January 2001 against Shalini Shanmugam for torturing her with a number of appliances, including scissors, a hammer and a screwdriver.
A Malaysian court awarded her on Friday a lump payout of Ringgit 51,000 (US$13,494). Shalini, meanwhile, was sentenced to six months' imprisonment and fined Ringgit 1,000 for the infliction of grievous bodily harm.
"It doesn't matter how much the payout is. No amount of money can compensate for the pain and suffering I endured. But I'm happy. I want to go home and see my family," she told the New Straits Times.
Marni is one of thousands of Indonesian migrant workers who are exploited or abused every year. The annual report from the association of Indonesian migrant workers Migrant Care has revealed that while their number increased in 2005 to around 600,000 workers, they are still perceived as a mere commodity by the government.
The Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration, the report said, had listed sending Indonesian workers overseas as one of its main schemes to reduce the unemployment rate.
Yet, in some countries, non-nationals in low-paid jobs are highly vulnerable to all types of violence, including assault, abuse and murder, as their own government does not guarantee their protection.
From February through March 2005, around 800,000 illegal migrant workers were forced to return from Malaysia after a series of raids marked by violence and the confiscation of their belongings.
Many returned home penniless as their employers refused to pay them. Moreover, conditions in the shelters set up to accommodate the returning workers in Nunukan, East Kalimantan were sub-standard. Migrant women are at particular risk of abuse, such as Wafi Nurohmat, whose body was sent home from Saudi Arabia in June with no statement given as to the cause of her death.
Meanwhile, the family of Nurmiyarti from Sumbawa, West Nusa Tenggara, reported to the manpower ministry and the foreign ministry that she was assaulted by her Saudi Arabian employer, leaving her seriously wounded. Nurmiyati was, however, sentenced to 79 strokes of the cane by a Riyadh court in December.
Migrant worker Hasanudin Sinring, 22, has been sentenced to death by the Magistrate Court in Kinabalu, Malaysia, for stabbing his employer Elizabeth Wong Oi Chon, 47, to death. Siti Aminah and Juminem were also sentenced to death for the premeditated murder of a Singaporean employer.
In response, baffling policies have been issued by the Indonesian government, such as prohibiting families from picking up returning migrant workers at the airport. This policy has been criticized by many as Terminal 3 at the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, which is designated for the workers, is notorious for blackmail, abandonment and assault.
Further complicating the issue, the Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI) has issued an edict prohibiting women who are not accompanied by their husband or another family member from working abroad.
Considering that migrant workers are a growing group with little national or international protection, Migrant Care has urged the government to improve the system of placing workers as well as to guarantee their safety and the protection of their rights abroad.
The government, the association said, must immediately ratify the 1990 International Convention on protection of migrant workers' rights and their families'. Though recruitment agencies are also responsible, it added.