Twenty-five Indonesian maids are on death row in Saudi Arabia while 22 others have been pardoned and sent home. Jakarta will send a delegation for talks on the issue.
"Six housemaids are on death row in Riyadh province alone, about 19 female workers have been handed death sentences" according to Indonesian embassy's spokesman Hendrar Pramutyo.
Jakarta will send "a 14-member presidential task force to the Kingdom on April 7" Pramutyo announced. "We have also asked permission from the host government to allow our presidential task force delegation to visit Saudi jails" where a total of 1,700 Indonesians are serving prison terms, he added.
Indonesian anger over the treatment of its manual labourers in the Gulf monarchy has grown since last year, after a spate of cases of abuse and killings. Last June, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono denounced the beheading in Saudi Arabia of an Indonesian maid and accused Riyadh of breaking the "norms and manners" of international relations.
Ruyati binti Sapubi, 54, was beheaded on June 18, 2011, after she was convicted of killing her Saudi employer. Indonesia also announced a moratorium on sending migrant workers to Saudi Arabia, where hundreds of thousands of Indonesians currently work. Days later, the kingdom announced that it would stop granting work permits to domestic workers from Indonesia and the Philippines, after hiring conditions were imposed by those two countries.
Rights groups say millions of mostly Asian domestic workers are regularly exposed to physical and financial abuse in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states because of poor or non-existent labour laws.
source: NewsAsia
