Indonesia will sign an agreement to lift its ban on maids working in Saudi Arabia when president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono travels to the Middle East on Thursday, according to reports.
Arabic-language daily Okaz reported on Sunday that Indonesia has agreed to end the restrictions it imposed on domestic workers being sent to Saudi in 2011, when an Indonesian worker was beheaded after being convicted of murdering her Saudi employer.
Saudi authorities did not inform the Indonesian Embassy in Riyadh before carrying out the execution and the case followed several other reports of poor treatment and abuse of Indonesian maids in the kingdom.
An Indonesian official told the Jakarta Globe that Mr Yudhoyono will visit Saudi on Thursday, but did not confirm if an agreement would be signed.
“He will visit Saudi Arabia, but I don’t know yet whether there will be an agreement,” PLE Priatna, the director of information and media at the Foreign Ministry, said.
Reports from the Middle East suggest that that Saudi has agreed to pay Indonesian maids a monthly salary of between 1,200 and 1,500 Saudi riyals (9,500-12,000 baht), following a year of negotiations about maids’ salaries and treatment.
The Jakarta Globe reports that many female Indonesian domestic workers choose to work in Arab countries in the belief that fellow Muslims would make ideal employers. However, in some cases maids have been treated effectively as pieces of property and not given time to pray.
Over 5,000 cases of physical and sexual abuse among foreign workers in Saudi Arabia were reported in 2010 by Migrant Care, the Indonesian Association for Migrant Workers Sovereignity.
Despite the ban on Saudi recruitment of domestic workers, 1.5 million Indonesians are employed in the kingdom, according to Indonesia’s Manpower Ministry.
Indonesia, which currently also prohibits migrant workers from being sent to Jordan, is the Middle East’s largest market for Asian domestic helpers.