News and statements on labour migration
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Examining conditions of domestic workers and child domestic workers in East Java
07 March 2012
Domestic workers also represent the single largest group of female salaried workers toiling away in households of others in their own country or abroad. Despite of the importance of the role of domestic workers, domestic work is still not recognized as work.
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Interview with Tim Lyons, Assistant Secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions
19 January 2012
Tim Lyons, who was the Workers' group spokesperson at the 15th ILO Asia and the Pacific Regional Meeting, talks about the situation of workers in Fiji, the promotion of ILO Conventions in Australia, and what the Australian Council of Trade Unions expects from the ILO...
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Skills training holds rural families, communities together
02 December 2011
Story of Tran Thi Thanh, a 43-year-old grandmother in My Loc, who acquired her first-ever passport and will use it to find work in Taiwan as a domestic worker.
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The long journey of justice for Indonesian migrant workers
04 October 2011
As the second largest sending country, some 700.000 documented Indonesian migrant workers leave the country for work abroad, primarily in East and South East Asia as well as the Middle East. Of these, 78 per cent work as domestic workers.
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ILO launches a photo essay on migrant workers - “The long road home: Journeys of Indonesian migrant workers”
26 September 2011
Growing numbers of Indonesian women and men continue to opt for overseas labour migration as the best way of securing an adequate income for their families and escaping poverty. However, the social and economic costs of migration to the workers and their families are many, but are often poorly understood and documented.
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The story of Munti: Tortured to death in Malaysia
15 September 2011
Suparmo, 47 years old, still cannot forget his wife’s condition. Her teeth were broken. Her backbone was fractured. She had bruises and stab wounds on her face and body. His wife’s name was Munti. She was only 36 years old and was in a coma. “I couldn’t believe that she could still be alive with all those severe injuries,” Suparmo recalled. “She had been severely tortured by her employers.”
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The story of Umi Saodah: Tortured and trapped in war-torn Palestine
15 September 2011
“I’m still angry and cannot forget what they have done to me,” Umi Saodah, a 34-year-old, recalled. It’s still crystal clear in her mind how four family members of her employer tortured her two years ago. “They showed no mercy. If they were living here in Indonesia, I would retaliate,” she said.
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The story of Halimah: A father’s persisting regrets
15 September 2011
Kohar, 49 years old and a resident of Cianjur, West Java, has five children: four daughters and a son. His wife died in 1999 and his two eldest daughters have worked in Saudi Arabia. When his third daughter, Halimah, 27 years of age, asked his permission to follow in her sisters’ footsteps working in Saudi Arabia as a migrant domestic worker, he could not say no.
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The story of Elli Anita: Resilience in the face of adversity
15 September 2011
Elli Anita is the third daughter of a family who joined the government-sponsored resettlement program from Jember in East Java to Bandar Lampung, Sumatra, when she was 18 years old. She holds an elementary school level leaving certificate and was expected to work on the family farm. However, after listening to the stories of fellow villagers, she was keen to work overseas as a domestic worker and see other countries.
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The story of Siti Tarwiyah: Beaten to death in Saudi Arabia; blood money is all that remains of a mother’s love
15 September 2011
“I’m still so traumatized. I can not forget my late wife. Her body was covered in wounds as a result of regular caning,” recalled Hamid, the husband of Siti Tarwiyah who died in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, three years ago. Her body was bruised everywhere because members of the employers family used to smash her up against walls. She was only 32 years old when she died.