While some Indonesians are lucky to be able to find gainful employment abroad as domestic workers, at the other end of the scale, there are those who have to suffer abuse and, in the worst instances, lives of virtual slavery.
We have seen a number of stories about Indonesian women being repatriated after going for years or even decades of working without payment as domestic workers, often in foreign countries. The story of Diah Anggraini — who returned to Indonesia for the first time in 12 years yesterday — is of a brave woman who chose not to take it and found help.
A release issued last week by the Ministry of Manpower told the story of Diah’s repatriation to her hometown of Kedungkandang in Malang, East Java.
https://www.facebook.com/KemnakerRI/posts/1081827962001673
According to the ministry, 36-year-old Diah lost contact with her family for 12 years after leaving for Jordan in October 2006. During those 12 years Diah was denied her basic rights as a worker and a human being, most disturbingly her right to contact her family, her right to free movement and her right to payment for work rendered.
“While working in Jordan, Diah claimed to be treated inhumanely and her salary was not paid. Finally, she ran away from her employer so she could return home,” Indonesia’s ambassador to Jordan, Andy Rachmianto, said in the statement.
After conducting an investigation and coordinating with various institutions, the Indonesian government was able to find Diah, who immediately made contact with her family.
https://youtu.be/y2OigJJJaRU
When an investigation into her situation began in December 2018, the information showed that Diah had been totally undocumented since 2014 and she had no legal clarity regarding the violation of her labor rights over the last 12 years.
According to the ministry’s release, Diah was not able to communicate in Bahasa Indonesia very well after not speaking it for so many years. She was brought to the Indonesian Embassy in Amman while the government tried to barter a deal for her.
The embassy said it made an agreement with Diah’s ex-employer to pay her US$9,000 (IDR127 million) for the 12 years of back wages, an amount the embassy was worth about ⅔ of what she was actually owed, or about US$750 per year of her life.
While at the embassy, Diah reportedly studied to regain her lost Indonesian language skills and took a health massage class offered by the government outpost so that she could pursue it as a new career when she returned to Indonesia.
Diah made her long awaited return to Indonesia yesterday, and has the money to potentially change her life. But she may also face a very difficult transition back to life in her homeland, as a truly free person.
Sadly, Diah’s is far from the only story of an Indonesian domestic worker being forced into modern day slavery and, disturbingly, there are even longer cases, such as that of a woman who was forced to work without pay by an Egyptian family in England for 18 years.
It’s not even the only recent such incident from Jordan. Last year, another Indonesian domestic worker was repatriated from the country after having allegedly been kept isolated and unpaid for 13 years — she reportedly had also forgotten how to speak Indonesian.
Indonesia currently has a moratorium on sending domestic workers to most Middle Eastern nations, including Jordan, after the number of abuse cases became unbearable. But many Indonesian women continue to search for work in those countries, usually via illegal recruiters, despite the enormous risks.
Reader Interactions