From VOA Learning English, this is the Economics Report.

这里是美国之音慢速英语经济报道。

Many migrant women go to work in private homes as cleaners, cooks and caretakers. They are called domestic workers.

许多外籍妇女到私人家庭担任清洁工、厨师和护工。她们被称为外籍佣人。

Recently, several incidents in Asia and the Middle East have brought attention to abuse of these workers. A court in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia sentenced a married couple to death in March for starving to death a 26-year-old Indonesian domestic worker.

最近，亚洲和中东的一些事件引发了人们对这些佣人受虐待的关注。今年三月，马来西亚吉隆坡的一家法院判处一对夫妇死刑，因为他们饿死了26岁的印尼籍佣人。

Another Indonesian maid, 23-year-old Erwiana Sulistyaningsih says she was abused as a worker in a home in Hong Kong. She spent almost a month in a hospital receiving treatment for her injuries. Pictures of those injuries and reports of her 20-hour workdays caused national anger.

另一位23岁的印尼女佣Erwiana Sulistyaningsih表示，她在香港一个家庭担任佣人时受到了虐待。因为受伤，她花了近一个月时间在医院接受治疗。那些受伤的照片以及她每天工作20个小时的报道引起了全国的愤怒。

The International Labor Organization, or ILO is a United Nations agency. It suggests there are 50 million homeworkers globally. Around 5 million Indonesian women worked in other countries last year. They sent almost $10 billion back to their families. But labor rights supporters say these migrant workers can be targets of abuse.

国际劳工组织(简称ILO)是一家联合国机构。该机构提出，全球有5000万佣人。去年有500万左右的印尼妇女在他国打工。她们往家寄回了近100亿美元。但劳工权利支持者表示，这些外籍佣人可能会成为被虐待的目标。

Audrey Guichon is with Anti-Slavery International. She says the foreign labor program in the Middle East called the kafala system can leave workers open to abuse.

Audrey Guichon就职于国际反奴役组织。她说中东被称为卡法拉系统的外籍劳工计划会让劳工面临虐待。

"The kafala system is in place across all countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council, which basically ties migrants' employment and residency to one single employer." Guichon said.

她说，“卡法拉系统在所有海湾合作委员会国家都得到了应用。它将外籍人员的就业、居住同某个雇主捆绑了起来。”

In Saudi Arabia, 42 Indonesians are awaiting death sentences. Half of them are believed to be domestic workers. Darsem Tawar faced a death sentence in 2011 for killing her employer. She argued that he was raping her at the time. Officials changed her sentence only after her supporters paid the family of the dead man.

在沙特阿拉伯，42位印尼人正在等待死刑判决。据认为其中半数是外籍佣人。Darsem Tawar在2011年因为杀了雇主而面临死刑。她辩护说，雇主当时要强奸她。有关官员在她的支持者赔偿了死者家属后才改判。

In April, the Indonesian government negotiated better conditions for its workers in Saudi Arabia. The agreement signals the end of Indonesia's three-year suspension of labor exports to the kingdom. However, critics say Indonesia must do more.

今年四月，印尼政府为其在沙特的佣人争取到了更好的条件。该协议标志着印尼对沙特为期三年的暂缓劳务输出的终结。然而，批评者称，印尼要做的还很多。

The ILO approved Convention 189 on domestic labor in 2011. Support for the document on labor rights is building. But only 13 countries have approved or ratified the measure. One of them, the Philippines is the world's largest exporter of domestic labor and important supporter of Convention 189.

2011年，国际劳工组织通过了189号劳工公约。对该劳工权利文件的支持正在建立中。但只有13个国家通过了该措施。其中之一的菲律宾是全球最大的外籍佣人输出国以及189号公约的重要支持者。

Archana Kotecha is a legal expert at the Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) Liberty Asia. She says labor export can become similar to human trafficking, especially in developing countries like Bangladesh and Burma, also known as Myanmar.

Archana Kotecha是非政府组织自由亚洲的法律专家。她说，劳务输出可能会演变成类似于贩卖人口，特别是在孟加拉国、缅甸等发展中国家。

And that is the Economics Report for VOA Learning English. I'm Mario Ritter.