'Export' of female workers to continue
JAKARTA (JP): Newly-appointed manpower and transmigration minister Al-Hilal Hamdi dismissed protests over the sending of female workers overseas, saying that labor exports were essential in helping to reduce the alarming level of unemployment here.
"There will be no temporary halt to labor exports because, besides providing economic benefits, the labor sector service industry has actually helped ease unemployment," he told journalists after an official handover ceremony from previous manpower minister Bomer Pasaribu here on Tuesday.
The Ministry of Manpower has now been merged with the Ministry of Transmigration which Al-Hilal previously headed.
The sending of female workers overseas has sparked protests from labor unions and women's organizations because of the increasing number of sexual harassment cases befalling them abroad over the last two years.
Critics have also won the support of State Minister for the Empowerment of Women Khofifah Indah Parawansa who has called for a stop to labor exports for the time being.
Al-Hilal maintained that suspending labor exports would only create new problems as job seekers would simply attempt to leave and seek work overseas illegally.
"What's more important is that we make the necessary corrections to the existing legal procedures, including those preventing people from entering foreign countries illegally," he said, referring an incident last week involving Indonesian job- seekers in the Straits of Malacca.
A boat carrying dozens of illegal immigrants trying to enter Malaysia sank leaving at least 25 dead and dozens of others still unaccounted for.
The minister said that both he and Foreign Minister Alwi Shihab would lobby Middle Eastern countries to help provide better protection for Indonesian workers employed there.
"A lobby effort is necessary because many women workers from Indonesia are facing problems in the Middle East," he said.
He added that he would set up a joint team comprising labor unions, labor exporters and the manpower and transmigration ministry for the purpose of rectifying existing export procedures and improving protection for Indonesians working abroad.
He also said the government was considering accelerating labor exports so as to double the government's receipts from the sector.
"We will try to accelerate labor exports by supplying around 1.5 million skilled workers overseas annually with the hope that government receipts will double to US$4.2 million," he said.
The number of Indonesian workers employed overseas has reached around three million and they contribute around $2 million annually to the government's foreign exchange earnings.
Saleh Alwaini, deputy chairman of the Labor Exporters Association (Apjati), hailed the minister's policy on labor exports but said that the government should take strict measures against labor exporters who fail to provide adequate protection for the workers they send abroad.
"Almost all of the troubles encountered by workers overseas can be partly blamed on the exporters because the workers were sent overseas without adequate training".
"Frankly speaking, many women workers employed as domestic helpers in the Middle East cannot speak Arabic and lack adequate domestic skills," he said.
Saleh, who is also the president of PT Binawan, a company which supplies semi-skilled workers to the Middle East, Europe, Taiwan and Canada, said the government should also act against illegal exporters of labor. (rms/01)