ACCESSING JUSTICE FROM THE 3 rd COUNTRY TO GLOBAL MIGRATION: Study on Indonesian Women Domestic Migrant Worker in th

1. ACCESSING JUSTICE FROM THE 3rd COUNTRY TO GLOBAL MIGRATION: Study on Indonesian Women Domestic Migrant Worker in the UAE PPI LEIDEN 10 NOVEMBER 2012 SulistyowatiIrianto Centre for Women and Gender Studies University of Indonenesia

2. Research Problem • To challenge how justice can be accessed by IDW who are constrained due to (1) the absence of law, and lack of (2) legal knowledge, (3) legal identity, (4) legal aid. • To scrutinize the social embeddedness with IDW as centre. How the woman is situated in such intersectional imbalance power relations connecting her with family& various actors in migration business (village broker, rec agencies, the State, the employer & society)

3. Why the UAE ? • The UAE is the rising star of the richest and wealthiest countries in the world for only 40 years after its declaration as a nation in 1971 • Population: in 2010 is estimated at 6 mio • Approximately 20 percent are the nationals, 80 % are migrant labour, in which 60 % are South Asian • The UAE was faced with the limitation of the local workers regarding quantity as well as competence in many areas of expertise

4. Location of the UAE

5. Migration in the UAE • The massive migration has caused labor issues and demographic imbalances • In 2009, foreign workers constituted 2.5 million of the total labor forces of 2.7 million. This means that the nationals constituted less than 10 percent of the employed population. • Six millions of Indonesian become part of global migration (There are around 75.000 Indonesian living in the UAE, and around 57. 000 of them are women domestic workers )

6. Social structure: clear distinction • Emirate-non Emirate • Arab non-Emirate & non Arab Arab non Emirate are: Saudi, Syrian, Iranian, Egyptian, Yamani, Kuwaiti, Qatari, Omani, Bahraini,etc Non-Arab are: Westerner, Indian, Pakistani, Filipino, mainland China, Bangladeshi, Ethiopian, Indonesia, etc) • Men & women • BICULTURALISM in character: materializing global modernization, but preserve the original Arabic culture & tradition

7. In the past

9. The magic of present UAE

12. “Female” Zayed University

13. Methodology • Documentary research (Act no 39/2004 & regulations, international legal instruments, contract, etc) • Doing ethnography of law with gendered perspective • Research site : • (1) pre-departure stage in Condet, East Jakarta • (2) placement phase in UAE: IDW in the Embassy shelter (Abu Dhabi & Dubai), agents, employer, UAE community, gov’t official (KBRI), judge in Al Ain Court

15. Drawing the “social embededness”

16. Playing theatre:true stories

17. Shelter to run away

18. FINDINGS Access to Justice

19. (1) Legal Problem: Weakness of the Act no 39/2004 on Placement & Protection (1) Priority is on placement and not protection • The title • 86 articles on placement & 8 on protection • The mindset is business orientation, not protection • No single word about “domestic migrant worker” (2) Many weaknesses : • Institutional dualism between Ministry of Labour & Nat’l Body, • highly financial requirement for establishment of recruiting agency , 400 hundred are licensed & 800 are illegal, • recruitment & training process are undertaken by private companies with the weak regulations • Difficulty to claim insurance

20. Protest against the Act no 39/2004

21. The absence of law: how women are structured in law ? • There is no specific law regulating them (Inds & UAE) • It refers to how domestic work is social and culturally perceived • It is seen as “informal work”, “additional job”, “dirty job”, excluded from job market and professional job, “invitation to work in a family”. • It shows power relations among women & family & state (s) & global market

22. Legal Problem • Being not regulated, domestic work issue is addressed to immigration office –Ministry of Interior (not Ministry of Labour) • Regulated as foreigner under immigration authority, somebody who invited in the family (not worker) • The applying rule is: in-house regulation

23. No legal certainty The existing multiple contracts: • Contract signed in Inds pre-departure (Act no39/2004) • Contract signed in the UAE’s immigration office • Written agreement btw agent & employer (salary & 3 months probation) • Regulating “salary” differently

24. The UAE’s Contract: what can be criticized ? • Protection for both parties: IDW & employer • Conflict & dispute are settled in Imgr office or Courts • No intervention from representative sending countries & its implication • Absconding/ takmim: employer totally releases its relation with DW • Written in English & Arabic • IDW should keep the contract, but it is not practiced

25. Legal problem • “Run away”: illegal & absconding • Sending to jail: charged with ethical cases (a-susila): 80% IDW are in jail for charging with having “relation” with man, the rest 20 % is for abortion & baby killing, stealing, child mistreatment, child kidnapping, burning the house, etc

26. Legal knowledge • Most of them (around 70 in Abu Dhabi & around 100 in Dubai)-> have no access to legal knowledge • Questioning curriculum of pre-departure training (& its monitoring) • Pre departure phase: some are prepared with “irrational” guidance (“magic”) instead

27. Legal identity • False identity: name, age, home address, etc • No access to hold passport – (legal identity is human rights) • questioning the dissemination of information & undocumented worker

28. Legal Aid • There is no specific Act for legal aid • Act no 37/1999 on Foreign Relations: Gov’t obliged to provide legal representatives & Act 39/2004 Art 80 underlined it • In reality: it doesn’t work Domestic worker is excluded from their access to country’s labour court & legal aid scheme • Insurance includes legal protection mechanism it is uneasy to claim • Hiring local lawyer & its implication

29. One Stop “Trading” Center: Study in Condet

30. Supporting facilities:medical centre

31. Store & expenditure service

32. Training center & boarding house

33. Law firm/ notaries & document service

34. Placement phase: Global Market

35. Picture of IDW in the UAE “They are wanted because they share the same religion, hardworking and obedient, and they do not mind low payment. Yet at the same time, they are discriminated, considered as the other, given stereotypes and stigma as cheap, left behind, and stupid simply because they are from different race, ethic group, nationality, class and for sure: women.”

36. Portrait of Injustice: IDW Experience in the KBRI shelter • Long working hours, lack of rests periods • Unpaid salary, underpaid and salary deduction • Bad diet: lack of food, forcing to eat rotten meals • Communication restriction (no cell phone) • Physical abuse, psychological abuse, sexual harassment (done by male or female employer) • Force confinement: charging with criminal for having boy friend, kidnapping, burning the house, child mistreatment

37. Socio-cultural Embeddedness • In the home Country: • Family: approval, pressure, self-sacrifice, power relation • Disintegration between the will, body and mind of the women. • In the village: • Kampong recruiters /brokers: emotional, trust relationship; • It is a multifaceted relation: patron-client, upper class - lower class, or it can also involve gender and religion • Pre-departure (in Condet): • Agency: their relations can be a very close like a family, a very formal, or an unclear • some agents do not have an office

38. Socio-cultural Embeddedness II • In the UEA • Migrant Workers and Agencies: • Bio-data as a Tool for Global Marketing; • Live in locked rooms in boarding houses; • In a custody of the agency staff: potentially “domestic” violence; • But there are also some emotional relationships. • Indonesian Agencies and UAE Agencies: • unique and personal relationship; • the partnership is created based on an identity or emotional attachment • It shows like an unequal business, but agencies in the UAE would compensate with emotional relation or build “family ties”

39. Start of the structuring identity

40. Socio-cultural Embeddedness III • In the UEA • In the employer’s house: • Cultural gap: Little knowledge about the employers, family, culture, language; • Cultural clashes, not only with the family members, but also with other workers in the home; • Having a boy friend as an Indonesian habit is not allowed; • Practicing magic: bring soil from home, put “urine” in a cup of tea etc • “… my sponsor told me to bring a lump of soil from my backyard. When I got to the United Arab Emirates, I mixed that soil with the soil I took from the yard of my employer’s house. He said I had to do it so that I would feel at home here knowing that I had soil from my own village near me.”

41. Concluding Remarks • Many people benefit from the chain of migration industries • IDW play important role in global market for replacing domestic work of the Arab women, hence they can take part in global economic. • Indonesian domestic workers are structured as “other” in intersectional power relations for being non-Emirate, non-Arab, lowest class, not well educated & trained, and women

42. Thank you