During the celebration of Kartini Day held by Humanitarian Organization for Migration Economics (HOME) Singapore (22/04/12), Indonesian Migrant Workers in Singapore also made petition for Singapore’s Ministry of Manpower (MoM).  MoM as a department of labor in Singapore, through the petition, is asked to forbid domestic worker from doing dangerous works.

Ristanti, coordinator of petition of BMI in Singapore, said dangerous work for BMI in Singapore is cleaning windows, because Singapore citizens live in high rise apartment buildings. Working at that height without safety devices is clearly life threatening. As evidence, in 2012 there were 7 BMIs in Singapore who fell and died.

“This is not a normal problem, this regards someone’s life, with so much attention to this problem, HOME feels that it should get serious attention from the government of Singapore so it won’t happen again,” said Ristanti.

With the celebration of Kartini Day, there were around 50 letters for MOM. HOME targeted 300 letters by the end of May 2012. However, at the same day, Halimah Yacob, Minister of State for Community Development, Youth and Sports in Singapore told employers to forbid domestic workers to open window bars in the apartment.

Halimah has made a statement which later became controversial and became a topic of argumentation last year, when saying that domestic worker should get a day off every Sunday. Now this statement has been made into the new Regulation by Singapore government although it’s only in effect in 2013.

Issue of work safety should be fought for by Indonesian Embassy (KBRI) in Singapore. Unfortunately, a few correspondences by BMI in Singapore to ask for support for the petition through email and social media which connect to KBRI never receive responds. Does Indonesian government through KBRI in Singapore are also feels indifferent to the fact that there are BMIs who died from falling from apartments?