Govt to tighten control of labor export firms

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)