Domestic Maids, Indonesia (2006)
Costly Dreams is a study of Indonesian women migrating to Singapore as live-in domestic workers without any rights or protection, leaving them at risk of exploitation and abuse by their employers.
- Intro to Disposable People: Contemporary Global Slavery exhibition, 2008-2010
Cover of notebook for Domestic Maids reporting, 2006
Many women in rural Indonesia work as farmers, either on their family?s fields or for hire, earning one dollar a day. Malang, East Java, Indonesia. 2006.
Suprianto, 27, is the primary caretaker for his 4 year old daughter Abigail. His wife, Widyaningsih, 27, has been working in Singapore for two years. Balearjo, East Java, Indonesia. 2006.
Sari, 28, and Nuryani, 20, begin their journey to a labor recruitment agency in Jakarta to be trained as domestic workers. Karawang, Indonesia. 2006.
A labor recruiter measures a new recruit to prepare a biodata that will be shared with prospective employers. Typically, biodatas include a woman?s picture, height, weight, marital status, and experience. Malang, East Java, Indonesia. 2006.
Young women learn cooking as part of their preparation to be domestic workers, Pt. Asricepta Tenaga Karya Training Center. Malang, East Java, Indonesia. 2006.
Young women wait for their labor agent in a special section of Hang Nadim airport for domestic workers. Their short hair, and at times, matching uniforms, often sets them apart from other passengers. Batam, Indonesia. 2006.
Advertisement in front of a maid agency in a shopping center. Many agencies compete for prospective clients by offering low agency fees. Typically, as the agency fee for employers drops, the cost is shifted to the recruitment fees paid by domestic workers, who may labor for eight months without a salary to repay these costs. Singapore. 2006.
A prospective employer sifts through biodatas for domestic workers provided by a Singaporean employment agent. Singapore. 2006.
Mina, 27, washes the windows at a high-rise condominium. Approximately 150 domestic workers have fallen to their deaths from high-rise buildings in Singapore in the last several years, half of these attributed to workplace accidents and half to suicide. Mina is a few days from finishing her second contract with plans to return to her husband and child in Indonesia. Singapore. 2006.
Notebook entry from Domestic Maids reporting, 2006
Sri (not her real name), 27, whose employer in the Middle East abused her, recovers at a hospital in Jakarta. Her employer punched her in the ears repeatedly and used spoons and forks to create the scars on her arm. Sri did not receive any salary during the eight months of her employment and is worried about how she will repay her recruitment loan when she returns home. Jakarta, Indonesia. 2006.
Sri (not her real name), 27, whose employer in the Middle East abused her, recovers at a hospital in Jakarta. Her employer punched her in the ears repeatedly and used spoons and forks to create the scars on her arm. Sri did not receive any salary during the eight months of her employment and is worried about how she will repay her recruitment loan when she returns home. Jakarta, Indonesia. 2006.
A spread from a Human Rights Watch report "Swept Under the Rug: Abuses against Domestic Workers Around the World," July 2006
A spread from a Human Rights Watch report "As If I Am Not Human: Abuses against Asian Domestic Workers in Saudi Arabia," July 2008
Disposable People: Contemporary Global Slavery was a major new photography exhibition, organised by Hayward Touring in collaboration with the photographic agencies Autograph ABP and Magnum Photos, taking an in-depth look at the prevalence of slavery and injustice in the 21st century through the lenses of eight internationally acclaimed documentary photographers.
The exhibition included projects by Abbas, Ian Berry, Stuart Franklin, Jim Goldberg, Susan Meiselas, Paolo Pellegrin, Chris Steele-Perkins and Alex Webb.
Installation of Domestic Maids as part of "Disposable People: Contemporary Global Slavery" touring exhibition, Southbank Centre, London, UK, 2008
The eight projects, commissioned by Autograph ABP, were by members of Magnum, the world’s leading photographic agency. All the photographers have a strong interest in human rights and a record for world-class photo-journalism. In the ‘heroic’ era of photo-journalism, roughly from the Spanish Civil War until the late 1960s, it seemed that a single image could define the greatest human dramas and catastrophes. In our age of digital image manipulation, camera phones and 24-hour news media, the exhibition examined the power of the documentary photograph to record and illuminate human existence.
A full illustrated catalogue ‘Documenting Disposable People’ was published to coincide with the exhibition, featuring reproductions of all the photographs in the exhibition, alongside detailed personal testimonies and texts by the photographers and Kevin Bales.
Installation of Domestic Maids as part of "Disposable People: Contemporary Global Slavery" touring exhibition, The Gallery, Peninsula Arts, University of Plymouth, UK, 2009
Panel from "Disposable People: Contemporary Global Slavery" touring exhibition, 2008
Panel from "Disposable People: Contemporary Global Slavery" touring exhibition, 2008
Panel from "Disposable People: Contemporary Global Slavery" touring exhibition, 2008
Panel from "Disposable People: Contemporary Global Slavery" touring exhibition, 2008
Panel from "Disposable People: Contemporary Global Slavery" touring exhibition, 2008
On June 16, 2011, ILO members – governments, trade unions, and employers’ associations – voted over- whelmingly to adopt the ILO Convention Concerning Decent Work for Domestic Workers (Domestic Workers Convention, No. 189). This groundbreaking treaty establishes the first global standards for domestic workers.
Under the Convention, domestic workers are entitled to the same basic rights as those available to other workers in their country, including weekly days off, limits to hours of work, minimum wage coverage, over- time compensation, social security, and clear information on the terms and conditions of employment. The new standards oblige governments that ratify to protect domestic workers from violence and abuse, to regulate private employment agencies that recruit and employ domestic workers, and to prevent child labor in domestic work.
- Human Rights Watch, The ILO Domestic Workers Convention, 2013
Page from Human Rights Watch report "The ILO Domestic Workers Convention," 2013
Page from Human Rights Watch report "The ILO Domestic Workers Convention," 2013
Page from Human Rights Watch report "The ILO Domestic Workers Convention," 2013
