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.