Indonesia continues to ban export of domestic workers to Saudi Arabia

A senior official of the Indonesian Manpower and Transmigration Ministry said on Friday that the moratorium on domestic workers placement in Saudi Arabia remains in place despite the recent signing of bilateral agreement on migrant workers between the two countries. Secretary General of the ministry Abdul Wahab said that resumption of export of Indonesian domestic workers to Saudi Arabia would have to wait for the results of further deliberation process at the Joint Working Committee (JWC) set up by Indonesian and Saudi Arabian governments to address related problems. "The moratorium is still in place until the accomplishment of better placement system, mechanism, requirements and job agreement standards so as to assure better protection and welfare for Indonesian workers working there," Wahab said. Matters that have to be approved in the process at the JWC include job specification, working hours, working place, workers and employers' rights and obligations, salary and payment schemes, among others, Wahab added. "Revocation on moratorium in the domestic sector would be announced later after Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and stakeholders involved in the activities agree to implement matters that have been approved by all parties," said the official. Indonesian Manpower and Transmigration Minister Muhaimin Iskandar signed a bilateral agreement with his Saudi Arabian counterpart Adiel Fakieh on placement and protection of Indonesian migrant workers in that country on Wednesday. Indonesia imposed the moratorium on sending domestic workers to Saudi Arabia in August 2011, following rampant abuses and legal cases involving Indonesian women working in the domestic sector in that country.