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
Sulistyowati Irianto
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

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

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