Word: hajar
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...Sadly, Hajar's story is all too common in a nation where over 5 million citizens are working abroad in households and factories across the globe. Indonesia's migrant workers have been reporting both physical and mental abuse for years, particularly in neighboring Malaysia where over two million Indonesians make their living as maids and construction workers...
...Siti Hajar's face - scarred with red blisters and scabs - told of the horror. For the past three years, the 33-year-old Indonesian domestic worker from West Java says she was abused by her Malaysian employer, being beaten, doused with boiling water and caned. In June, the ongoing violence finally landed her in a Kuala Lumpur-based hospital. Photos of her burned face, distributed by Indonesian television stations and newspapers, sparked outrage throughout the country, prompting Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to make a personal call to her as she recovered in the hospital...
...After the public outcry over Hajar's case, in late June Indonesia temporarily blocked its domestic workers from going to Malaysia to work until the two countries hammer out additional protections to a 2006 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on migrant workers. Indonesia's proposed amendments - including acknowledging workers' rights to wage increases and a day off each week - aim to protect domestic workers better by providing opportunities to build support amongst friends and ensure proper payment. This is not the first time where tensions have boiled between the two neighboring states over migrant abuse, but this time, they hope...
...solve the vast array of risks that migrants face everyday in the work place. Multilateral frameworks "need the awareness of all sectors to provide protection to migrant workers," says Premjai Vungsiriphaisal, researcher at the Asian Research Center for Migration. Tragically, progress didn't come in time for Siti Hajar. There's hope that it will for thousands of other women like...
Aside from half-day dune buggy trips ($90), Perera's company Desert Rangers offers a range of excursions, including overnight trekking ($102, with meals) in the Hajar Mountains, sandboarding and sandskiing ($148) and kayaking in the eastern Klaba mangrove ($82); for more information, call (971-4) 346-0808. Many operators offer more genteel desert safaris. After a 30-minute drive east of the city into the desert, our group clambers into a fleet of 4x4s. There's some more dune bashing, air-conditioned this time, and after 90 minutes we arrive at base camp in time for some sandboarding...