Learn from RP in treatment of workers, Jacob says

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

In Manila, workers returning from overseas are welcomed like heroes. In Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta Airport, they will be met by an army of hungry officials herding them into Terminal III to be extorted.

The sinister comparison between the contrasting ways the two countries treat their overseas workers was made by Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Jacob Nuwa Wea on Tuesday.

Jacob, who is also chairman of the Federation of All- Indonesian Labor Unions, was recounting experiences from his visit to the Philippines last week.

His conclusion is that the Philippines treat their returning migrant workers much more humanely than Indonesia does. In the Philippines, the returning workers receive privileges at the airport. Their Indonesian counterparts become targets of extortion.

Indonesia has over a million workers overseas, most notably in Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Unlike Indonesian migrant workers, the Filipinos are not discriminated against. At airports in the Philippines, they are provided with special lanes for a speedy exit, Jacob said.

He identified the officials who extort workers in Terminal III at Soekarno-Hatta as those from his own ministry, labor exporting associations, customs and excise, immigration and transportation officials, Antara reported.

The low level of education among Indonesian migrant workers aggravates the problem, Jacob said. Most of them have elementary and junior secondary schooling backgrounds, or are even illiterate.

The government has raised the minimum educational level to junior high school.

In response to public complaints about terrible service, the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration has been reforming the bureaucratic procedures at Terminal III.

The ministry has liquidated the Team for Returning Migrant Workers and Team for Worker Transportation, which were seen as part of the problem.

Terminal III will be managed by the Labor Suppliers Association (PJTKI), which is responsible for the safety of migrant workers from their departure until their arrival back home.

Yunus Yamani, a former executive of the Team for Returning Migrant Workers, said the manpower ministry had failed to follow up on the numerous reports of corrupt practices at Terminal III.

He said that, what is needed now is the government's determination and proper law enforcement to stop extortion and other corrupt practices at Terminal III.

"Unless the law is enforced, nothing will change at Terminal III -- whoever manages it," he said.

Poor service is only one of the numerous plights that migrant workers have to deal with. There are also a series of fees, legal or otherwise, that workers consider too burdensome.

Al Ikhlas Autonomous Body, an association of labor suppliers specializing in sending Indonesian workers to Saudi Arabia, acknowledged on Tuesday that it charged each worker an US$11 protection fee.

"The rule began on Oct. 15, 2001. The money will be used to help workers who have problems in Saudi Arabia," Al Ikhlas chairman Rusjdi Bahasuan said in Jakarta.

At the average rate of Rp 10,000 per dollar and with 15,000 workers dispatched to Saudi Arabia each month, Al Ikhlas will amass Rp 1.65 billion a month.

Rusjdi promised that Al Ikhlas would be accountable to the workers in managing the funds.