Indonesians in Focus: Susanti Ariyanti

By Wombat | September 8th, 2006 | No Comments

Being critical is both curse and gift for migrant worker turned activist Susanti Ariyani.

Her past experience as a migrant worker has earned her respect in her fight for the rights of fellow workers and their families, especially when dealing with ignorant officials or the police.

The 27 year-old native of Cirebon, West Java, a four-hour drive east of Jakarta, recollected the hostile treatment she endured from the officials of a labor recruitment agency here and her employers at the destination countries.
It all started around five years ago when she was short of money to finance her diploma course in Bandung, West Java. Her parents could not afford to pay the university fees and the payment she received from tutoring fellow students in English was no longer enough to cover the expenses.

So, Susanti took leave from the university and went home to her parents’ village, some four hours from Bandung. There, she found brokers from recruitment agencies hanging around like vultures, trying to lure villagers, who have little money, to work abroad as — at most — domestic workers.

“I didn’t have any other alternative … so I decided to give it a try,” she said in a recent interview on the sidelines of a seminar on migrant workers held by the National Commission on Violence Against Women.

Arriving in Jakarta in the middle of the night, at a labor-supply agency — which trains and sends workers abroad — Susanti discovered human rights abuses, irregularities in recruitment procedures and document forgery.

“I had to strip almost naked for a physical examination, along with several others. The doctor was a woman but still … When I protested, she just said that’s the way it was,” said Susanti, a devout Muslim who wears a headscarf.

She went on to protest about everything: the false data on her documents, an abrupt decision to send her to Singapore instead of Hong Kong for no apparent reason, and the so-called training which was very short (three days) with practically nothing being taught.

“Every time I protested, I was scolded. They said I was too vocal,” said Susanti, who is very articulate and speaks nearly perfect English.

As a consequence, the agency postponed her placement and made her wait without any certainty of getting work abroad. The agency saw her tutorial potential and she was ordered to teach English to her fellow trainees and to work as a maid at one of the officials’ homes.

“When I asked for a salary, he got angry and threatened not to give me the job (abroad),” she said.

After four months, Susanti was finally sent to Singapore, only to find that her employer made her work 18 hours nonstop every day, with limited food and no day off.

“I was forced to wash the walls every day as well as the windows on the balcony of the apartment, which was on the 26th floor. Once I said it was no use cleaning the windows every day because it was the rainy season… and she locked me in a tiny storage room for 10 hours,” she said.

Five months later, she suffered a collapse in the bathroom, and was sent back to her agent.

Susanti then found a second employer, a couple whom Susanti was extremely grateful to for their understanding and kindness. Not only did they bail her out from the agent for breaking the contract early with the first employer, but they gave her weekends off plus extra money and taught her how to use the Internet.

Her employers moved to Australia and Susanti, who refused their offer to go along with them, went home, determined to finish her delayed course. Back at the university, she said, she found that people really looked down on her because she had worked as a domestic helper.

“I told them it was not an ordinary job,” said Susanti, considering how women’s lives and honor were at risk while working abroad.

“I remember how my friends are in debt to their agents; how they suffer physical abuse… and rape. All this is faced while trying to improve their lives. People have no choice but to work abroad because our country is poor, but migrant workers are not appreciated,” she said.

After completing her study, she was offered a job with a non-governmental organization in her hometown that helped migrant workers. Suspecting that the organization might not be credible, she turned it down initially before giving in.

She was sent to a series of seminars and workshops and underwent training.

“I was stunned to find a number of regulations and conventions on workers … but that they are still unprotected. From then on, I realized that it’s our own efforts — the workers’ — that will help us,” she said.

While money was not an obstacle anymore for her, thanks to her former employer’s generosity in teaching her how to invest, Susanto felt so frustrated with unscrupulous officials and the lack of law enforcement that she decided to seek work abroad again; this time in Hong Kong.

Employer number three turned out to be the same as employer number one. But Susanti has learned many things about organizational and campaigning skills.

“The Hong Kong government imposes strict regulations and migrant workers feel more protected. I have also learned a lot from my Filipino friends who are, unlike Indonesians, more organized. Indonesians don’t really care about other people’s fate as long as they are fine,” she said.

Her last venture abroad lasted less then a year. She went home and has since become a full-time activist with the Cirebon-based Forum for Migrant Workers and Families (FWBMI) which was established in 2000.

“We aim to form a community organization, to empower migrant workers and their families, to familiarize them with legal and health issues, and so on. We also ask wealthier former migrant workers to subsidize others in the form of cooperation. Right now we are also working on a permit to establish a school for former migrant workers. But the government is very bureaucratic,” she said.

Other obstacles encountered in the campaign, she said, were that they still lacked funding and that people were still suspicious about their mission. Susanti said that the forum had worked on 190 cases, one-third of them were settled. Rape cases have risen significantly. Workers who suffer sexual abuse will bring home their “unwanted” babies and find they are not accepted by their families.

“Rape cases mostly happen to women working in Saudi Arabia. It is very easy to go there, you know. Demand for workers is so high that work documents are already prepared beforehand for any applicant to use right away,” she said.

She said Indonesia should follow the recruitment system adopted by the Philippines where the government tightly scrutinizes the data in the documents to minimize fraud. The government is very mindful about sending only skilled, fully-trained workers abroad.

“People really push the government to protect migrant workers. Labor organizations there are also united, and legislators really represent the people.

Susanti said she was still willing to work abroad, particularly in Canada, reputable among destination countries for upholding protection for migrant workers.

Her overseas venture this time — should it materialize — will carry a mission to push forward her cause.

“I’ll have time to study. And I also want to strengthen migrant workers organizations in other countries,” she said.

Hera Diani