The embassy is also faced with the dilemma of how to repatriate the toddlers to Jakarta and reintegrate them into Indonesian society.
“Most of these housemaids with children born in Saudi Arabia were raped by their Arab employers or co-workers from different Asian countries,” said Hendrar Pramudyo, minister counselor at the Indonesian Embassy on Thursday.
He claimed that a large number of sexual assaults on Indonesian maids had been reported during 2009 and this year.
This is in addition to the 159 babies born to Indonesian maids in the Kingdom in 2009 after being raped by their co-workers or conceiving through a consensual relationship, explained Pramudyo.
He expressed his concerns that Indonesian missions were witnessing a steady upward trend in the number of reported sexual assaults as well as the number of babies born out of illicit relationships.
Pramudyo claimed that rapists were not convicted in many cases because of a lack of evidence.
He called on the regulatory authorities of both countries to work together to protect the rights of domestic helpers, especially maids. He also confirmed that a shelter for Indonesian migrant babies had been set up in Jakarta to help returning workers.
“Traditionally, sex is a taboo subject, hence many migrant domestic workers are ignorant of the health and social risks of casual sex,” said a report from an Indonesian social welfare organization on the subject, adding that in many instances workers fail to avoid unwanted pregnancies after they have been sexually assaulted.
In the Kingdom, these maids do not have the choice to have an abortion or give up the babies. In many cases, pregnant maids are arrested by police and placed in jails. Sometimes they are deported before the child is born. In some cases, the rapists or the fathers are also identified.
In one case recently, a DNA test was conducted that eventually proved a child born to an Indonesian maid belonged to a Saudi who allegedly raped her.
The 25-year-old maid alleged that the youth, who was 17 at the time, raped her in early 2007 while she worked for his family.
The family and the Bureau of Investigation and Prosecution (BIP) in Riyadh had rejected the claims before a court agreed to hear her case.
The report claimed that there were dozens of children abandoned by migrant workers in homes throughout Jakarta and surrounding areas after their return from the Kingdom.
It did however commend the establishment of a shelter for migrant babies. So far, more than 10 babies have been taken in by the shelter in Jakarta. Some have been returned to their mothers, whose families have agreed to accept them.
Some have been adopted by foster parents who were selected after a strict review process, which includes a visit to the candidates’ homes by a social affairs agency in Indonesia.
Once approved, the agency will send a recommendation letter to the court to legalize the adoption in that country.
More than 750,000 Indonesian women workers, mostly maids, are working in Saudi Arabia at the moment. Around 250,000 Indonesian men also work in the Kingdom.