A Hope for Better Life ends in Misery

Name: A Hope for Better Life ends in Misery
Uploaded: 2020-12-11T03:04:27Z
Duration: 20 min 32 s
Description: Mei Harianti (26) had a big dream when she decided to work in neighboring Malaysia.

Mei Harianti (26) had a big dream when she decided to work in neighboring Malaysia.

Abdullah Fikri Ashri/ Cornelius Helmy

· 6 minutes read

Mei Harianti (26) had a big dream when she decided to work in neighboring Malaysia. Instead of having a better life, the mother of two who hails from Cirebon, West Java had been abused by her Malaysian employer for almost a year. Her story again shows the gloomy pictures of the country’s migrant workers overseas.

The story emerged at the end of November, 2020. Her family, which had without contact with Mei for months, was in shock, especially when they saw Mei\'s photo. Her body looked frail. Her left leg was swollen. There are scars caused by hot water.

"She looks so skinny. You can see her bones, ”said Mei’s brother Gunawan (31) said on Friday (4/12/2020).

Also read: Gaining Profits from Repeated Suffering

Every now and then, he and Syafii (60), his father, looked at Mei’s photo wearing a blue veil against a red background. Their eyes filled with tears.

May\'s case came to light thanks to information from local non-governmental organization Tenaganita. The NGO together with the local police and the Indonesian embassy in Kuala Lumpur then rescued the victim from her employer\'s house on Tuesday (24/11). Mei is still undergoing treatment at a hospital in Malaysia. Her employer has been arrested by the authorities.

She looks so skinny. You can see her bones

The family said they had no idea that Mei, who had left for Malaysia to work as a domestic worker, would become a victim of violence. Moreover, based on data from the Indonesian Migrant Workers Protection Agency (BP2MI), she worked in Malaysia legally through a formal recruitment procedure.

Mei applied to become a migrant worker through the BP2MI’s Jakarta office. In addition to having an overseas employment card, she also had taken a part in job training before going to Malaysia.

During 13 months in Malaysia, according to Gunawan, Mei only called her husband three times and that was at the beginning of her stay in the country.

"First call lasted for 15 minutes. Second, 10 minutes, and the third nine minutes. No more calls in the following, "he said.

The family had wanted to call Mei. However, they were unable to contact her. "She used her employer’s cell phone, we did not dare to call her, " he said.

Now, the family\'s curiosity about Mei\'s condition is answered with bitterness. "My hope was my daughter could work there safely, but she was abused, instead?" said Syafii.

Also read: Protect Migrant Workers

Mei is the fourth of five children. She had graduated from high school, although through the Package C equivalency program . Her husband runs a small shop. She has two small children.

Mei\'s extended family lives in a dense settlement behind a tall hotel in Pekiringan, Cirebon. Only motorbikes can reach the residential area.

Their house is stories measuring 2.5 meters in width and 8 meters in length. The residents mostly elevated their houses because the flood often hit the area. Syafii works as a coolie with a salary of Rp 875,000 (US$60) a month.

Now, the family hopes that Mei can be sent home in a healthy and safe condition. "If she goes home, she will not be allowed to go there anymore," Syafii said.

Mei is just one of the many Indonesian migrant workers who have been abused by their employers. In fact, not a few who were killed. Adeline Sau, from East Nusa Tenggara, for example, was abused to death by her employer in Penang, Malaysia in February 2018. The employer who tortured Adelina was acquitted in a court trial.

Advocacy

The head of the BP2MI, Benny Ramdhani said, together with the Indonesian Embassy, his office would continue to monitor Mei’s case. However, he urged the government to immediately review the Memorandum of Understanding for the Recruitment and Placement of Indonesian Domestic Workers with the Malaysian government which was signed in 2006 and expired in 2016.

The Malaysian government has actually implemented a maid online recruitment system since 2018 to ease the procedures for Indonesians to work as domestic workers in the neighboring country. Although this system is able to cut costs and bureaucratic chains, Indonesian migrant workers are potentially not recorded in government data.

Also read: Protecting Indonesian Citizens Abroad

The chairman of the Sapa Institute, an advocacy institution assisting women victims of violence in West Java, Sri Mulyati, said that the government should ensure there should violation prevention and mitigation for the Indonesian migrant workers because many of the Indonesian workers were not aware that they had become victims of violations.

A survey conducted jointly by Sapa Institute and Women\'s Crisis Center in Pasundan Durebang on 150 women migrant workers indicated that only 16 percent of the respondents said they had suffered violence and discrimination during the preparation process until they worked overseas. In fact, after being intensively interviewed, it was found that all of them had become the victims of abuse and discriminations.

Laswiati (41), a resident of Paseh, Bandung regency, never realized that she had been a victim of violence while working as a migrant worker in Saudi Arabia. She had worked for two different employers between 2004 and 2006 through a legal recruitment procedure.

At her first employer, all her travel documents and passport were withheld. He also often worked from morning to midnight. When family members travel, Laswiati was locked up in the house. She was often insulted in the local language. She never thought that she was a victim of abuse as she considered such a treatment as being normal as a consequence of work.

“When I moved to my second employer, I was told that I had been sold. I didn\'t know if it was a human trafficking, "she added.

That experience made her to feel a trauma. However, this time the suffering caused by the Covid-19 pandemic has eroded her fears. She plans to work as a migrant worker again in other country. Her husband\'s income as a laborer is far from enough.