• Home
• /
• World

Indonesia to probe frexh maid torture case in S.Arabia

JAKARTA — Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said on Friday that an inquiry will be launched into a female migrant’s suspicious death in Saudi Arabia, a second case of alleged maid abuse in the country.

“We will launch an investigation this week... for the two cases. It’s not only to seek justice but to prevent similar incidents from happening in the future,” Yudhoyono told reporters at presidential palace in Jakarta capital.

Manpower Minister Muhaimin Iskandar said that Kikim Komalasari, who had worked in Abha city in Saudi Arabia since June 2009, had died from abuse. She was from Cianjur in west Java province.

Komalasari’s case came after another Indonesian, Sumiati Binti Salan Mustapa, 23, was treated in hospital in Medina for wounds including scissor gashes to her lips and face.

The minister said Indonesia will review sending migrants workers to Saudi Arabia and Jordan.

“As ordered by the president, we will make a full review to reach a final conclusion over whether to continue or not (sending migrant workers),” he told reporters after a cabinet meeting with Yudhoyono.

Sumiati was allegedly cut with scissors and burned with an iron by her employers, in the latest in a string of abuse cases against Indonesian workers in the Middle East and neighbouring Malaysia.

She had gone to Saudi Arabia from Dompu in West Nusa Tenggara province four months ago to look for work, joining thousands of Indonesian men and women who carry out manual labour in the oil-rich kingdom.

Amnesty International appealed to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states on Wednesday to do more to protect migrant domestic workers.

The London-based human rights watchdog said the maid’s treatment, which Yudhoyono on Tuesday described as “extraordinary torture”, symbolised the plight of foreign workers in the region.