The long road home: Journeys of Indonesian migrant workers

Consisting of an approximately 80 photos, the essay illustrates the journeys taken by the Indonesian domestic migrant workers throughout the cycles of migration from pre-departure and departure stages to placement and reintegration stages.

The photo essay is developed by the ILO in collaboration with Sim Chi Yin, a Singaporean photojournalist who is now based in Beijing, China. Her experiences in reporting migrant workers’ lives in Singapore, particularly the Indonesian migrant workers, for the local press, covering cases of physical abuse, unpaid wages, illegal and grimy dormitories, injury and, sometimes, death had encouraged her to take a personal journey to visit the families and communities of migrant domestic workers in Central Java, Indonesia.