Commission III Member of Parliament Raises Concerns Over 32 Deaths of NTT Migrant Workers in 2026
JAKARTA — Member of Parliament Mercy Chriesty Barends, representing Commission III of the People’s Consultative Assembly, has expressed deep sorrow over migrant workers who have died abroad. She voiced concern over the continued rise in deaths among migrant workers from East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), with the most recent incident involving four bodies that arrived at El Tari Airport in Kupang on Monday, 9 March 2026.
Barends noted that the number of NTT migrant workers who died between January and March 2026 reached 32. Of these, 30 were identified as undocumented migrant workers.
According to Barends, this reality indicates serious problems in the governance of labour migration. Additionally, it reflects weak oversight of illegal recruitment practices that have long targeted communities in migrant-sending regions.
“This is not merely a statistic. Behind every body returning to our homeland, there is a family that has lost a child, mother, father, or the breadwinner of their household. The state cannot allow this humanitarian tragedy to continue recurring,” Barends told journalists in Jakarta on Tuesday, 10 March 2026.
Barends highlighted that there are long-established illegal migrant worker trafficking networks from NTT that have been publicly known for years, yet have never been thoroughly dismantled by authorities.
She noted several recurring patterns, including the Kupang-Batam-Malaysia route, frequently used for unofficial migrant worker trafficking. Additionally, the Kupang-West Kalimantan-Sarawak route operates through land borders, and the Kupang-Nunukan-Sabah route is often exploited by recruitment networks for illegal workers on plantations.
Furthermore, according to Barends, there are direct routes through small ports and unofficial maritime channels used to evade official oversight. “These routes are no secret. For years, communities in NTT have known about these recruitment and trafficking patterns,” said Barends.
The head of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP) Working Division on Labour and Migrant Worker Protection stated that law enforcement and intelligence agencies certainly possess data on these illegal routes. Barends questioned why it appeared that there was tolerance for the continued occurrence of illegal migrant worker smuggling.
“It is bewildering that the perpetrators or illegal recruitment agents cannot be apprehended. This is not one or two cases but thousands of undocumented workers leaving Indonesia — surely this cannot go undetected. If there are officials from law enforcement or other state apparatus involved in participating in these criminal syndicates, there must be firm action,” Barends explained.