Indonesian workers will continue to work overseas illegally

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Indonesian workers still prefer to work abroad illegally due to complex procedures, both in Indonesia and receiving countries, an analyst has said.

Migrant worker analyst Sri Palupi said on Tuesday Indonesian workers wishing to work overseas legally were burdened with a variety of dubious fees, even though they received hardly any legal protection from the government while working overseas.

Receiving countries also imposed a variety of fees and complicated procedures on firms to recruit migrant workers legally, she said.

"So, problems at home and rising demands for illegal workers overseas coincide and drive Indonesian workers to work overseas illegally," Sri said at a seminar here on Tuesday.

At present, many Indonesians still work overseas illegally in various countries, including Malaysia, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Last year, some 480,000 illegal Indonesian workers were driven out of Malaysia after that country implemented tough immigration legislation endorsing corporal punishment and jail terms for illegal workers. Many believed that most of the workers had sneaked into Malaysia illegally.

Under manpower minister's Decree No. 204/1999, legal migrant worker applicants have to pay, among other things, recruitment, placement and supervision fees, all of which are extremely expensive.

Workers wishing to work in Taiwan, for example, have to pay Rp 20 million to Rp 30 million to a labor recruitment agency.

On top of that, their monthly salary is reduced by up to NT$10,000 (US$303) per month by labor agencies there. Indonesian workers earn an average of NT$15,000 per month.

Before leaving for Taiwan, each worker is also charged NT$1,800 in Taiwan labor agents' fees and NT$1,500 for local agents.

The ruling only benefited worker agencies and employers, who were supposed to shoulder some of the fees, she said.

"This is an indication that the government simply wants to maintain the image that our migrant workers are cheaper than those from other countries," she said.

Legal protection for migrant workers is also still very weak.

The responsibility for legal protection of migrant workers was also taken on by worker agencies, which was wrong, as the main objective of worker agencies was to reap profit, not protect labor, she said.

Sri also alleged that a number of destination countries, such as Malaysia and Singapore, had created anti-migrant worker policies, including the imposition of income tax on foreign workers, high fees for working visa applications and difficult procedures for firms recruiting foreign workers.

She urged the government to speed up the creation of migrant worker protection law to at least protect Indonesian migrant workers when they were still at home.

Sri also said that the government had to ratify international conventions that protected the rights of migrant workers as they were one of the instruments to protect Indonesian workers overseas.

Director General of Overseas Worker Placement at the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration I Gede Made Arka acknowledged that there were a lot of problems related to migrant workers at home and overseas that should be tackled by the government.

"We definitely want to improve the system, ranging from reducing red tape, improving training centers for migrant workers and punishing worker agencies that violate regulations to giving more protection to workers," he said.