REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, SURABAYA - Number of Indonesian migrant workers facing the death penalty keeps increasing from time to time. Many of them are threatened from termination of employment unilaterally, underpaid, violation of worker's rights, to slavery-like treatment.
Co-founder of Migrant Care, Anis Hidayah said that 265 Indonesian migrant workers faced death penalty. The number consists of 213 migrant workers undergoing legal process and 70 others have been sentenced to death.
"There are nine cases involving Indonesian migrant workers in Saudi Arabia and they are sentenced to death penalty. A total of 33 cases are still in legal process. In China there are nine cases with sentence of death and 18 cases are still in legal process. It is very worrying," Hidayah said recently.
Hidayah said that similar cases against Indonesian migrant workers also occurred in some other countries. On January 19, 1990 and September 14, 1991, Basri Masse and Karno Marzuki were executed in Malaysia. Yanti Irianti and Ruyati were executed in Arab Saudi each on February 12, 2008 and June 18, 2011, while Darman Agustiri was executed in Egypt in 2010.
Hidayah said that what happened to Indonesian migran workers was inseparable from various problems. For example, there are 101,067 migrant workers without legal documents. Hidayah said that local government needed to increase their role to suppress such case from occurring.
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