Far From Home: East Asia drawing more Indonesian and Filipino maids from the Middle East, but will they be treated better?

Over the years, the mistreatment of domestic workers in the Middle East has created a number of diplomatic rows between countries which send domestic workers abroad, such as Indonesia and the Philippines, and host countries such as Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. 

Cases of abuse and injustice affecting domestic workers from Southeast Asia sometimes sparked widespread public outrage at home. These cases typically resulted in Indonesia or the Philippines lodging formal protests.

However, in 2011, Jakarta took things to the next level by recalling its then-ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Gatot Abdullah Mansyur in response to the execution of an Indonesian domestic worker, Ruyati Sapubi who was accused of killing her employer. 

Indonesia maintained that it was only notified of the execution after Mdm Ruyati was beheaded, depriving its diplomats of their ability to protect her.

Indonesia-Saudi relations normalised and the Indonesian ambassador was redeployed to Riyadh just a few days later, after the Arab kingdom issued a formal apology and promised to review the cases against 12 Indonesian maids who were also on death row at the time. 

However, instances of Indonesian domestic workers executed in Saudi Arabia for killing their employers continued after the normalisation. Jakarta felt that these domestic workers should not have received the death penalty, arguing that the killings were self-defence because the maids were abused.

In 2015, Indonesia imposed a moratorium on the sending of domestic workers to Saudi Arabia along with 18 other countries in the Middle East and North Africa.

Meanwhile, the Philippines and Kuwait engaged in a diplomatic row in 2018 after the death of a Filipina maid, Joanna Demafelis whose lifeless body was discovered inside a freezer in her employer’s apartment, more than a year after she was reported missing. The death sparked a widespread public outcry in the Philippines.

Then-president Rodrigo Duterte responded by ordering a ban on the sending of new domestic workers to Kuwait in February of 2018.

The row turned into a full-blown diplomatic crisis in May after the Filipino embassy in Kuwait aided the escape of three citizens who were abused and held captive by their respective employers.

Manila acknowledged that the rescue operations were not coordinated with Kuwaiti authorities but argued that the maids’ lives were threatened and their cries for help needed to be acted upon immediately.

Kuwait responded by expelling Philippine Ambassador to Kuwait Renato Villa and issuing an arrest warrant against several embassy personnel for violation of its sovereignty. 

Both sides decided to normalise relations several weeks later after the Philippines agreed to lift its ban while Kuwait agreed to provide more rights and benefits to domestic workers such as health insurance and a weekly day off. 

Despite the rows, relationships between Southeast Asia and Middle Eastern countries in other sectors were largely unaffected. 

Indonesia and Saudi Arabia, for example, remained key partners in trade and investment even when the former imposed the eight-year ban on sending new domestic workers to the Gulf state. 

Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country, also continued to send more and more worshipers for the annual Hajj pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia’s Mecca and Medina.

Meanwhile, the Philippines and Kuwait continued to be key trading partners in the sectors of oil and gas, apparel and fruits despite the diplomatic crisis.