Former Malaysia workers still stranded at home<\/p>\n
Ridwan Max Sijabat, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
More than 350,000 Indonesian workers have remained out of work
\nsince they left Malaysia, due to an absence of job orders, a
\ngovernment official has claimed.<\/p>\n
Director-general of labor export at the Ministry of Manpower
\nand Transmigration I Gusti Made Arka expressed concern for the
\nstate of former migrant workers amid Indonesia's chronic
\nunemployment.<\/p>\n
\"Only a few thousand of the almost 400,000 deported workers
\nhave returned to Malaysia after they obtained necessary documents
\nto work there. The majority remain at home, using up the money
\nthey brought from Malaysia just to survive,\" he told a joint
\nhearing of House of Representatives' Commissions VIII and IX on
\nsocial affairs, education and labor here on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Also present at the hearing were manpower minister Fahmi Idris
\nand State Minister for Women's Empowerment Meutia Hatta.<\/p>\n
Malaysia's home ministry has issued some 57,000 job orders for
\nseveral labor-supplying countries, including Indonesia,
\nBangladesh, India, the Philippines, Myanmar and Thailand, since
\nthe Malaysian government started raids to deport around 1.2
\nmillion illegal migrant workers earlier this month.<\/p>\n
Arka said Malaysian employers were in urgent need of foreign
\nworkers and that they prefer Indonesians, but their government
\nwas slow in responding to this high demand.<\/p>\n
He emphasized that the Indonesian government was working hard
\nto prevent the exploitation of illegal workers in line with the
\ntwo countries' commitments to provide legal protections for
\nmigrant workers.<\/p>\n
\"Using the official procedure, Indonesian workers will be
\nprotected and will be paid between 40 ringgit (US$10) and 60
\nringgit per day,\" Arka said. By comparison, illegal workers were
\npaid between seven ringgit and 10 ringgit per day.<\/p>\n
Malaysia and Indonesia recently held bilateral talks to
\nprepare better labor export mechanisms, but Malaysia did not
\nspecify the number of Indonesian workers it would reemploy in the
\nfuture.<\/p>\n
Bilateral ties have been disrupted by a border dispute in
\nAmbalat maritime area in the Sulawesi Sea.<\/p>\n
Malaysia has considered recruiting workers from Pakistan if
\nIndonesia stops supplying workers.<\/p>\n
House members expressed skepticism, saying that Malaysia was
\nin dire need of Indonesian workers because of similarities in
\nlanguage, culture and religion between them.<\/p>\n
The legislators also expressed their concern over the \"rampant
\nabuse\" of Indonesian workers overseas, saying the government
\nshould enforce Law No. 39\/2004 to help minimize labor abuse and
\nhuman trafficking.<\/p>\n
They suggested that the government change its labor export
\npolicy to enable the country to supply more workers in the formal
\nsector.<\/p>\n
Over 76 percent, or 1.2 million, of the 1.4 million workers
\nsupplied overseas over the past four years were women, and 70
\npercent of them only completed elementary education.<\/p>\n
Minister Fahmi said attempts to curb human trafficking and the
\nsending of illegal and unskilled workers overseas remained far
\nfrom satisfactory due to rampant falsification of identity
\ndocuments.<\/p>\n
He said moves should be made to eradicate corrupt practices
\nwithin the bureaucracy.<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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