Govt to tighten control of labor export firms
JAKARTA (JP): A top labor official has charged that 80 percent of the country's 400 licensed labor export companies are either unqualified or unprofessional.
Din Syamsuddin, director general of labor placement at the Ministry of Manpower, said the inadequate proficiency of most labor export companies had only aggravated the increasing number of troubled Indonesian workers overseas.
"We conducted a survey of labor export companies and we were shocked at the findings, which show that most of them are in bad condition," he told journalists here on Friday.
"This has made many of them incapable of carrying out their business properly," he added.
Din said that for now the government would not reduce the number of labor export companies, but pledged it would be more selective in issuing new licenses in the future.
"The government will also take strict action against labor export companies that ignore troubled workers they sent overseas. We will bar such companies from operating until they've handled their troubled workers," he said.
He estimates that there are currently some 300 Indonesian workers sheltered in Indonesian embassies in the Middle East due to various troubles with their employers.
According to a government regulation, labor exporters are responsible for any trouble faced by workers from their departure until their arrival home.
He also said the government would gradually decrease the number of domestic helpers and semi-skilled workers being sent overseas and instead encourage labor exporters to send skilled workers abroad.
He said 55 percent of more than 450,000 Indonesian workers employed in the Middle East were categorized as skilled labor while the remaining 45 percent were unskilled domestic helpers.
Din, also secretary to the Coordinating Body for Indonesian Workers Placement (BPTKI), said the body which combines the forces of the Ministry of Manpower, Ministry of Home Affairs, National Police, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Immigration Office would continue its nationwide campaign of disseminating information on job opportunities overseas and legal protection for workers.
Missing
In a separate development, two men in Yogyakarta on Friday sought assistance from non-governmental organizations here to help find family members working in Saudi Arabia whom they have not heard from for five years.
Jayeng Utomo, a 42-year-old resident of Bantul regency, reported to the Sekretariat Bersama Perempuan Yogyakarta, a non- governmental advocacy institution for women, that he had not been able to contact his daughter Jayati in Saudi Arabia for five years.
Meanwhile, Sudahar said his eldest daughter Siti Rukhibah, who went to Saudi Arabia in 1994, was also missing. Rukhibah reportedly worked as a maid for a family in Medina.
According to Jayeng, the Bantul-based manpower supplier PT Amri Brothers arranged the departure of Jayati.
He claimed that the company had so far only provided him with a copy of documents saying Jayati would work for a man named Saad Faiz Ibrahim.
Jayeng said his family had asked the Ministry of Manpower in Jakarta and its office in Yogyakarta for help but got no response.
"The staff at the Ministry of Manpower in Jakarta merely laughed at me, saying that there was nothing extraordinary in my report. They said that my daughter would come home some day," Jayeng said.
Sudahar on the other hand said that during the first year in Medina, Rukhibah sent some letters to the family in Bantul. "That's all. We have not had contact with each other since then."
Sudahar said that even though he also had two sisters working in Medina he found it particularly difficult to trace Rukhibah's whereabouts. (rms/44/sur)