TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Activists and migrant workers will launch protests over rumors that local police stopped investigations in an Indonesian maid abuse case. “We are very angry with the situation, it's not our first case," Eni Lestari, who leads the International Migrants Alliance, said on Thursday, January 16, 2014.
Erwiana Sulistyaningsih, 23, was tortured for eight months by her employer in Hong Kong. She finally went home on Friday, January 10, 2014, and is now being treated in a hospital in Central Java. Her condition has improved.
“This is very big,” Mia Sumiati, chairwoman of Komunitas Migran Indonesia (Indonesian migrants community), which runs a shetler in Hong Kong for abused maids. She asked the government of Hongkong and Indonesia to investigate together.
"Those responsible should go to court. We also request our government to help her come back to Hong Kong so she can report to the police,” she said.
Local newspaper South China Morning Post reported that Hong Kong police refused to investigate Erwiana’s case. However, last Tuesday, a police spokesman said they were investigating the case.
At least 300,000 maids from Southeast Asia—mainly from Indonesia and Philippines—are working in Hong Kong. A lot of Indonesian workers in Hong Kong become victims of fraud by employment agencies that force them to pay a lot of money and confiscate their documents. These workers were promised a high salary and a decent job.
In November last year, Amnesty International condemned the “slavery” of thousands of Indonesian women who worked in Hong Kong.
ALJAZEERA | PHILIPUS PARERA
