Govt asked to push for labor export

Ridwan Max Sijabat, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

mounting controversy over Indonesian overseas workers, some 3,000 prospective migrant workers, staged a massive rally, to demand that the government continue to allow recruitment of workers for employment overseas to help cope with the serious unemployment problem at home.

The demonstrators, mostly women scheduled to depart overseas, marched peacefully from the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration along Jl. Gatot Subroto to the House of Representatives to air their aspirations to the relevant authorities.

The demonstrators met manpower minister Jacob Nuwa Wea and House speaker Akbar Tandjung to convey their concerns.

Munir Achmad who accompanied the demonstrators, said that despite the numerous problems faced by the workers, the authorities should continue to send workers overseas and improve coordination with recruitment agencies to reduce the problems workers face.

The rally followed mounting controversy over recruitment and the export of workers due to the increasing violation of workers' rights during their employment overseas.

The House recently lambasted the government and asked the manpower and transmigration minister to step down for his failure to provide legal protection for the workers.

Nuwa Wea who threatened over the weekend to suspend sending workers to Malaysia due to Malaysia's reluctance to sign a memorandum of understanding (MOUs) to provide protection for Indonesian workers, said he did not mind stepping down but such a move would not solve the complex problems.

The minister pledged to continue to send workers to Malaysia but said he would tighten labor export procedures to minimize violence against Indonesian workers overseas.

Malaysia employs more than one million Indonesian workers, half of whom are believed to have entered the country illegally.

He said the issue had been politicized to prevent him from pushing for a significant increase in the minimum wage at home in January.

He admitted he was frustrated by the weak compliance with the labor law that failed to protect overseas workers. "But, on the other hand, the government has political interests in continuing to allow workers to seek work overseas to help defuse unemployment at home which has reached 41.2 million."

A number of workers exposed to the local media harrowing experiences of rape and torture that befell them during their employment in the Middle East, drawing fierce criticism from numerous sides.

Nuwa Wea underlined the importance of training workers in certain skills and foreign languages before their departure to lessen mistreatment and abuse.

Former manpower minister Bomer Pasaribu said it would be near impossible for the government to suspend labor export because of the serious unemployment problem.

"The workers wouldn't seek work abroad if the government provided them jobs and the salary level was as high as in foreign countries. Besides, the cases could be lessened if the government was responsive to incidents that befell Indonesian workers overseas."