Govt mulls inter-departmental body for workers

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government is planning to set up an inter-departmental body to handle the settlement and protection of migrant workers and to overcome problems faced by the country's migrant workers.

The national body, whose members consist of officials from several departments, will take over the duties of a similar body currently under the manpower and transmigration ministry.

Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Alwi Shihab said on Wednesday here that the national body would be established soon after a Cabinet meeting.

"It is necessary to reorganize the settlement and protection of Indonesian migrant workers by establishing a national coordinating body for their settlement and protection," he told a press conference after a ministerial meeting.

The establishment of the national body was part of the manpower and transmigration ministry's target for the first 100 days of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's administration.

It is expected that the national body would provide a one-roof service for migrant workers.

"It will cover all aspects, from ID cards, passports, job orders, contracts, training and so forth," Alwi said.

The meeting has assigned the manpower ministry to make a study for the preparations needed to establish the new body.

"The body will involve other departments, labor recruiting companies and non-governmental organizations," Alwi said.

The government was also considering issuing special passports for migrant workers, Alwi said.

Currently, hundreds of thousands of illegal Indonesian migrant workers are leaving neighboring Malaysia following an amnesty granted by Malaysia for them to return to Indonesia before Idul Fitri.

Alwi said the government was currently preparing a resettlement program for illegal migrant workers not eligible for employment in Malaysia.

"Malaysia requires migrant workers to have certificates of eligibility, to attend a 60-hour training program on Malay culture, lessons in Malay and English as well as some knowledge about the laws there," he said.

Some 300,000 of the 800,000 illegal workers are expected to accept the amnesty Malaysian authorities have offered.

Over 70 percent of them planned to go back to the neighboring country, Alwi said. Open unemployment in Indonesia is currently at 10 million.

The government also offered migrant workers the opportunity to work at nine palm oil plantations in Sumatra and Kalimantan, which could absorb around 22,500 families.

The resettlement program would cost a total of Rp 1.6 trillion to construct housing and prepare arable land for palm oil estates for the families. The Ministry of Finance has approved the scheme, Alwi said.

Thousands of migrant workers deported from Malaysia over the last two years have been resettled in the small-holder palm oil plantations in Natuna, Riau; Sanggau, West Kalimantan, and Nunukan, East Kalimantan.