Indonesia to stop sending maids to work abroad 'to preserve country's dignity': President
Widodo tasks manpower ministry to come up with 'clear roadmap' on when to stop practice
PUBLISHED : Sunday, 15 February, 2015, 10:21am
UPDATED : Monday, 16 February, 2015, 8:11pm
Staff Reporter
45 per cent of foreign domestic helpers working in Hong Kong are Indonesian. Photo: AFP
Indonesia will no longer send woman abroad to work as maids in a bid to preserve the country's dignity, President Joko Widodo has announced, according to reports.
During a speech at the Hanura Party's second national congress, Widodo said he had tasked the manpower ministry to come up with a "clear roadmap" on when the country can stop providing domestic helpers to countries around the world, according to the Straits Times newspaper.
"The practice of Indonesian women going overseas to work as housemaids must stop immediately," he said, adding: "We should have pride and dignity."
As of last month, there were a total of 334,000 foreign domestic helpers working in Hong Kong, of whom 45 per cent were Indonesian.
It is unclear what effect the moves will have on Hong Kong's current population of Indonesian domestic helpers.
The announcement comes days after Amnesty International said that language and cultural differences left Indonesian maids in Hong Kong more at risk of abuse than domestic helpers from the Philippines, which provides 52 per cent of the workforce.
Director of Amnesty International Hong Kong, Mabel Au Mei-po, said because of language difficulties, Indonesian maids - most of whom cannot speak English before arriving in the city - had limited access to the information that could have saved them from abuse.
In January Rafael Walangitan, the acting Indonesian consul general in Hong Kong, told the South China Morning Post the Indonesian government was looking at ways to send skilled workers overseas.
"The Indonesian government is looking into how to enhance and upgrade the status of more skilled workers," he said. "We want to give more opportunities for higher quality overseas employment for the Indonesian people."
Last week Hong Kong woman Law Wan-tung was found guilty of 18 charges of mistreating her maids, including beating Indonesian domestic helper Erwiana Sulistyaningsih.
Law, 44, was convicted of six counts of assault and criminal intimidation on Erwiana and two counts on another Indonesian maid, Tutik Lestari Ningsih. She was was also found guilty of 10 charges of failing to pay Erwiana or give her time off.
Police said in 2014 domestic helpers in Hong Kong reported 49 cases - including physical assaults, indecent assaults and rape - against their employers, down from 53 in 2013.
