Minister urges stop to extortion of workers
Minister urges stop to extortion of workers
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Jacob Nuwa Wea
expressed his concern on Friday about the fact that migrant
workers had become cash cows for all parties involved in sending
workers abroad.
The outspoken minister said that extortion was so rampant it
was difficult now to find someone who was not involved.
"Everybody commits extortion. These offenses are committed
from the top to the bottom," Jacob said in an address he
delivered to members of the Indonesian Union of Sailors (KPI) at
the North Jakarta Sports Hall to mark the organization's
anniversary .
Also present at the ceremony was Minister of Transportation
Agum Gumelar.
This was not the first time that Jacob had lashed out at such
practices, but, as always, he fell short of announcing punitive
measures against the extorters.
He said many migrant workers, mostly domestic workers, were
subject to extortion from the time they were recruited until the
time they completed their contracts and returned home.
"This situation is lamentable because they leave their
families to go abroad to make some money but end up becoming fair
game for everybody," said Jacob, who also chairs the
Confederation of Indonesian Labor Unions.
Calling for an end to such abuses, Jacob said he was
considering breakthrough measures to combat extortion.
Separately, the Yogyakarta-based Center for Demographic and
Policy Studies revealed that a recent survey it had conducted had
found that most Indonesian migrant workers knew little about
their countries of destination.
"They are in the dark about the countries they will be placed
in. The desire to seek jobs abroad has made them blind to the
price they may have to pay," chief researcher Faturochman said on
Friday.
He added that there was no guarantee legal migrant workers
would reach their destinations unhindered, while illegal workers
often risked being drowned when their unseaworthy boats sank, or
being caught by border guards.