On Saturday in Saudi Arabia, a 54 year old maid from Indonesia was beheaded for killing her employer. According to the news coming out of Jakarta, Ruyati binti Sapubi's employer had refused to allow her to leave to visit her family and had repeatedly abused her. Because she confessed to the crime, no trial was conducted, no lawyer was provided and her family was not informed of her imprisonment and death sentence until it had been carried out.
Almost 1.2 million Indonesians are living in Saudi Arabia and about 70% of them are domestic workers. Many of them have made claims of abuse and torture that are usually ruled in favor of the Saudi employers which has caused a great row between the two countries.
As a result of the beheading on Saturday multiple protests have been held outside the Saudi embassy in Jakarta and the Labour Ministry spokes woman, Dita Indah Sari, has said that the department will begin to work on tightening all regulations concerning overseas domestic workers.
Currently the government of Indonesia has put a moratorium on all domestic workers intending to go to Saudi Arabia and is calling on all its citizens to refrain from going there on holiday. The moratorium is going to stand until the government of Saudi Arabia agreed to protect the rights of foreign domestic workers.
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