Migrant workers lack government protection

Migrant workers lack government protection

M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A non-governmental organization (NGO) advocating migrant workers'
rights urged the government on Thursday to immediately ratify an
international convention to protect the rights of Indonesians
working overseas so that they would not fall victim to
unscrupulous employers.

The Consortium for the Protection of Rights of Migrant Workers
(KOPBUMI) issued the statement after the convention was finally
ratified by 20 countries, a minimum condition for its enactment.

The consortium hailed East Timor -- a newly independent
country and former Indonesian province -- as the latest nation to
sign the convention.

The convention promotes the basic rights of migrant workers,
and covers the right to form a union and associations. It also
promotes the right to due process and protection from inhumane
treatment.

"The government has not ratified the convention because it
would only protect and benefit foreign workers in Indonesia
instead of protecting our workers abroad," said Umu Hilmy, a
staff member of the consortium, citing the reason why the
government had not ratified the convention.

Umu also said the government refused to ratify the convention
because some of the basic rights advocated by it were being
violated in several foreign countries.

"In Malaysia, Indonesian workers were discriminated against,
and socially and politically marginalized," a public attorney
from the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute, Rita Tambunan, said.

Rita added that Indonesian workers in Malaysia were prohibited
from forming a union and attending labor meetings, which is a
blatant violation of workers' rights.

Touching on cases of local laborers working in the Middle
East, she said most Indonesian workers there had little
legal protection and several workers had suffered harsh
mistreatment.

She referred to a case where a female worker from West Java
was facing severe punishment but was later pardoned after the
Indonesian public protested her sentence. She said that in most
cases it was public pressure -- not the government's undertakings
-- that succeeded in helping alleviate workers' suffering.

She also blamed the government's indifference toward the
plight of migrant workers on their return home, most of whom had
to bribe officials at the Ministry of Manpower before they could
leave the airports to return to their home villages.

"Our recent survey shows that 35 percent of the problems
confronted by workers happened in Indonesia. Cheating by local
labor agents, extortion from public officials and violence was
experienced within the country," Rita told The Jakarta Post.

One former migrant worker confirmed the many problems that
happened to laborers working abroad.

Nurharsono, from Blitar, East Java, recalled his challenges
abroad and also questioned an illegal fee of US$15 which all
workers had to pay upon their arrival home.

"I have no idea where the money went to and what it will be
used for," he said.