Cooperation for migrant workers vital

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Indonesian government called on Wednesday for close cooperation to protect its migrant workers in host countries.

Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Jacob Nuwa Wea told the envoys of 11 countries that hosted Indonesian workers that joint action was needed to curb illegal labor trafficking and the recruitment of unqualified workers.

Jacob urged host countries not to easily grant employment visas without informing his ministry so as to avoid illicit practices by labor exporting agents, including the fabrication of worker documentation.

"This move will ensure tight screening so only eligible workers will be sent to the host countries, because there are many illegal or individual embarkations," he said.

The dialog, facilitated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was attended by representatives of Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Japan, Republic of Korea, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Jordan, Qatar and Oman.

The briefing followed a row over Malaysia's plan last month to expel half of the 900,000 registered workers from Indonesia.

Jacob suggested that each of the recipient countries form an association of foreign workers and provide insurance for them. These measures, he said, would ease the workload of both the host governments and Indonesian embassies in monitoring the migrant workers.

Jacob, who has just returned from a trip to Kuwait and the UAE, said that in certain countries, the local policies of employing foreign workers had sparked an increase in the number of unregistered workers.

Such policies, he added, allowed companies that hired Indonesian workers to treat the workers as trainees with poor wages of only around one-third of the salaries paid to domestic workers of the same level.

"If other companies in that country offer them higher salaries, the workers will automatically move and work without contracts," Jacob said.

Later in the evening, the Solidaritas Perempuan non- governmental organization met with Jacob for talks on rampant illegal trafficking of Indonesian migrant workers.

The NGO activists brought with them 16-year-old Mella Windasari, who has been crippled since being abused while working as a housemaid with four different employers in Pakistan two years ago. She had been promised by her agent that she would be given a job in a Kuwaiti factory.

To obtain a passport for her, the agent falsified her data, saying that she was a 27-year-old widow.

Solidaritas' program coordinator Salma Safitri asked the ministry to provide access to health facility here fro injured and maimed returning migrant workers.