Compliance to Women's Rights Standards: The Case of Migration of Domestic Workers from The Philippines and Indonesia in Brunei Darussalam

Compliance to Women's Rights Standards: The Case of Migration of Domestic Workers from the Philippines and Indonesia in Brunei Darussalam

Ms. Nur Judy Abdullah - Council on Social Welfare, Brunei Darussalam

Women's Legal and Human Rights Bureau, Inc (WLB), Philippines

Ms. Rena Herdiyani - Kalyanamitra Foundation, Indonesia

ABSTRACT

RATIONALE

Southeast Asia is home to both sending and receiving countries of domestic work. With the diverse economic, political and socio-cultural landscapes in Southeast Asia, attention is called upon the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to ensure that the rights of domestic workers within its member states are promoted and protected.

The ASEAN is at the juncture of defining a regional regulatory framework for managing migration. The ASEAN Declaration on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers signed by the member states in 2007 mandates ASEAN countries to promote fair and appropriate employment protection, payment of wages, and adequate access to decent working and living conditions for migrant workers.

Brunei Darussalam, an oil-rich country in Southeast Asia, has been a preferred destination for most women migrant domestic workers from Philippines and Indonesia because of its proximity and similarity in culture, weather and language. The high currency exchange of Brunei Dollars with Philippine Peso and Indonesian Rupiah is an added attraction.

There are around 22,000 Filipinos employed in Brunei where 25% are working as domestic helpers and some 51,000 Indonesian expatriates living in Brunei as of April 2011. The demand for Filipino and Indonesian domestic workers is high in Brunei compared to other nationalities of domestic workers such as Malaysian, Thais and Vietnamese.

In Indonesia, migrant workers' remittances serve as the second largest state revenue after oil and gas. Despite their significant contribution to state revenue, migrant workers lack adequate protection from the government of Indonesia. Indonesian domestic workers overseas are the most vulnerable groups to economic exploitation, as well as various forms of discrimination and violence as this type of work is not fully and legally recognized as "work."

The Philippines next to Indonesia is one of the top sending countries supplying the demand for reproductive labor particularly domestic work worldwide. Household and related work, to where a majority of women overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) find deployment, is considered non-skilled or semi-skilled, a classification that in turn sets lower income.

About 700,000 documented Indonesian migrant workers leave the country to seek employment overseas. The number of undocumented migrants is estimated to be 2 to 4 times higher and nearly 80% with the vast majority working as domestic workers. It was estimated that 4.473 million Indonesian migrant workers are in Southeast