More back-up for RI workers abroad

Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Indonesian workers abroad will get more legal protection as the House of Representatives (DPR) agreed on Monday to deliberate a bill on the protection of migrant workers.

At a plenary meeting headed by deputy House speaker Muhaimin Iskandar, all nine factions gave support to the bill, which was outlined by the House's Legislation Bureau.

During the plenary, most of the factions expressed concern over the frequent mistreatment of Indonesian workers by their local labor exporters, their employers abroad and by unscrupulous officials upon their return to Indonesia.

Muhaimin of the National Awakening Party (PKB) remarked that with the bill, the government should be more serious in dealing with labor issues, especially problems faced by migrant workers.

"We hope this bill will pressurize the government to be more serious in providing protection for workers, including migrant workers," Muhaimin said.

Spokesman of the Indonesian Military (TNI)/Police faction Muryono said that legal protection provided by the government now was not enough, and therefore the bill was needed to protect migrant workers.

"We hope this bill can improve coordination between the offices concerned," Muryono added.

Fellow legislators Rekso Ageng Herman of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) faction and Mariani Akib Baramuli of the Golkar faction agreed, saying that the bill should provide better protection for migrant workers.

The bill would provide protection for migrant workers from the time of their recruitment by labor exporting agencies to their return to Indonesia.

The bill requires that the government ensure the workers are treated properly, both here in the country and when they are working abroad.

The initiative of legislators to propose a bill on migrant worker protection was prompted by the frequent abuse of Indonesians working abroad by either their employers or workers' agents.

Many Indonesian workers were at the receiving end of physical and sexual abuse, and others were sent home penniless.

The latest incident was the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Indonesian illegal workers in Malaysia. Many were stranded in the border town of Nunukan, East Kalimantan, and dozens died in Nunukan or on the way home.

Currently, the government and legislators are deliberating two bills on the settlement of industrial disputes and on labor protection. Those two bills, however, provide regulations regarding the relations between workers and their employers in Indonesia.

Deputy House speaker Muhaimin Iskandar said that the bill on the protection of Indonesian labors working abroad would be deliberated in the next sitting, due to start on Jan.3.

"We have no time to discuss it (the bill) now," he said, referring to the current sitting, which will finish on Nov. 29.