A Permanent Maid Moratorium: The Death Penalty in The Middle East and Female Migrant Workers From Indonesia

ABSTRACT While existing research has examined travel bans as a result of the abuse of migrant workers, here they are analysed in relation to capital punishment. Focusing on female migrant workers travelling to the Middle East from Indonesia, it is argued that, far from indicating an abolitionist stance on the death penalty, these travel ban policies instead reveal paternalistic attitudes towards gendered labour and the need to preserve the ‘dignity’ of the nation. Moreover, these bans are ineffective and fundamentally fail to address the vulnerability of migrant workers to execution overseas.