Korean executive denies manipulation charges
By Harry Bhaskara
SEOUL (JP): A Korean executive has denied charges made by an Indonesian labor supply company, which he represents, that he siphoned off US$30 million from the wages of Indonesian trainees in Korea.
"On the contrary, the manipulation has been committed by the company headquarters' in Jakarta," Han sun-dong, the representative of the Jakarta-based Binawan Group, was quoted as saying by the Korean-language Chosun Ilbo newspaper Tuesday.
Binawan president Saleh Alwaini told Media Indonesia last week that the money was the wages of workers for the last two years. The group sent some 5,000 trainees to Korea during the period with monthly wages of $360 to $900.
Han told Chosun that he had transferred a total of $6.6 million to Jakarta from June 1994 to August 1996 for the trainees and added that he had kept all the transfer receipts with him.
Another $2.2 million, he said, had been withdrawn from the bank by the trainees themselves.
Han also said that some 2,500 trainees working in Korea banked their wages at the Hanil Bank in Yoido-dong totaling about $3.1. million.
"The charges that I had privately kept the money in a bank were groundless," he said.
Han said he had in fact asked the Indonesian manpower ministry to investigate the alleged manipulation at Binawan Jakarta office under the instruction of the Korea Federation of Small Business.
An Indonesian Embassy staff member here who met with Han Wednesday, confirmed that the Korean director had the bank transfer documents in his possession.
"I have seen the documents, a whole stack of them, sent during the two-year period. It is difficult to say who is on the wrong side," Danto Ntoma, head of the Consular Department, told The Jakarta Post Thursday.
Han, in return, charged that Binawan Jakarta manipulated the passports of 36 Indonesians. He said some of the workers had been detained by the Korean immigration office awaiting repatriation.
The mud-slinging came amid allegations of the extortion of Indonesian workers.
"The problem is a blister. I have tried to address the issue in the past but the problem seems to persist," Indonesian Ambassador to Korea Mohammad Singgih Hadipranowo told the Post.
"Some worker supply companies have violated the government regulation. I am really concerned about the fate of Indonesian workers here," he said.
Sources have said Indonesian workers are asked to pay US$600 per person for a work extension permit.
"It is stated nowhere in the regulation," the honorary consul of Indonesia, Kim Soo-il, told the Post. He pointed out extortion, if the allegation is true, increases the hardships of the workers as the amount is equal to six weeks of their wages.
"Most of the workers come from poor families. They work here because they need the money for the medical treatment of a sick relative or to finance the education of a family member," he said.
Kim, who is also a professor of Southeast Asian politics at Pusan University, described how workers usually had to wait for months before they were able to leave Indonesia for Korea, and how they often had to pay a great amount of money to the company that sent them.
"If the extortion charge is true, I'm afraid the workers will grow to hate their own government. I have a stack of letters written by workers with tears in their eyes," Kim said.
He said the alleged extortion has forced many Indonesian workers to work illegally, something which is not tolerated by the Korean government.
"Now there are six Indonesian workers staying with me, waiting to be repatriated," he said.
Djuhari Wirakartakusumah, an advisor to the Ministry of Manpower who was on a visit here, said he would report the matter to Jakarta.
More than 9,000 Indonesian workers work in South Korea, including 3,000 seamen. The number, however, pales in comparison to the 400,000 Indonesian workers in Saudi Arabia and one million in Malaysia. Unemployment is a big headache for the government with two million people entering the labor market every year.