Domestic worker ‘lost’ for 13 years in Jordan rescued, can no longer speak Indonesian

Dastin bin Tasja, a 30-year-old migrant worker from Indonesia who left her home 13 years ago to work in Jordan. Photo: Ministry of Manpower of the Republic of Indonesia
Dastin bin Tasja, a 30-year-old migrant worker from Indonesia who left her home 13 years ago to work in Jordan. Photo: Ministry of Manpower of the Republic of Indonesia

Lately, we have seen several stories about Indonesian domestic workers abroad who were exploited and lost touch with anyone from their homeland for years or even decades. One domestic worker named Dastin bin Tasja is the latest among those rescued by officials after leaving Indonesia and her family to work in Jordan 13 years ago.

As told in a press release issued by the Ministry of Manpower (Kemnaker) today, 30-year-old Dastin was rescued by embassy officials and Jordanian counter trafficking officials after her story was reported by local media in her hometown in the Indramayu Regency of West Java.

“Praise God we eventually received information about Dastin’s employer and found her there. The employer was quite cooperative and we even brought them to the embassy,” said Suseno Hadi, manpower attaché at the Indonesian Embassy in Jordan.

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Suseno said Dastin has been rescued and brought to a shelter operated by the embassy in the Jordanian capital of Amman. Dastin will be flown home as soon she receives her unpaid salary (though how long she has not been paid was not revealed) after her employer gave their promise to do so to Dastin and embassy officials.

According to the ministry, Dastin is currently re-learning the Indonesian language at the shelter after losing the ability to speak it during her 13 years working in Jordan. At the moment, she only understands Arabic.

“She’s very happy as she has lost contact and hasn’t communicated with her family all this time. She said she wants to go home immediately and see her parents again,” Suseno said.

According to Jordan’s Ministry of Labor, as of last year, 2,805 Indonesian domestic workers were employed in the country, though only 505 of them are working legally. Despite a moratorium by the Indonesian government issued in 2015 preventing the sending of domestic workers to Middle Eastern countries, many still choose to or are tricked into working in the region by unscrupulous employment agencies.

In Dastin’s case, she entered Jordan with a tourist visa in 2005 and was set up to work for several employers by an employment agent. The agency no longer exists.

Tales of Indonesian domestic workers being unable to return home for various reasons are sadly quite commonplace. One extreme case from last year involved a woman who was working without pay for 22 years in Saudi Arabia before she was finally rescued and flown back to Indonesia. Another extreme case involved a woman kept as a slave by an Egyptian family in England for 18 years before she was rescued and flown home last week.



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