Agency set up for migrant workers

JAKARTA: The government plans to establish an agency to tackle issues concerning the country's migrant workers, Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Jacob Nuwa Wea said.

Jacob said the agency would involve nine institutions, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the National Police, and would be chaired by the President. It would provide one-stop service to migrant workers, from the recruitment process, through training to protect them while they are abroad, right up to the placement process.

"We all know that 80 percent of the problems our migrants workers face arise inside the country ... so we are considering establishing an agency involving nine departments," Jacob said after a Cabinet meeting on Thursday.

The agency was necessary due to the fact that migrant workers were a source of revenue for the country but nevertheless remained vulnerable to abuse while abroad. Indonesia is one of the world's largest labor exporters. The workers contributed US$1.1 million to the state in 2001, a figure that is expected to climb to $5 million by 2004.

Over the past three months, 41 Indonesian migrant workers have died as the result of illness, physical abuse or suicide. -- JP