No account of Indonesians seeking employment abroad

YOGYAKARTA (JP): Ida Bagus Mantra, a senior researcher at the University of Gadjah Mada's population studies center, said recently that countless Indonesians have literally risked their lives seeking jobs illegally abroad over the last two decades.

In a recent interview with The Jakarta Post, the lecturer at the university's school of geography described the horror and hardship Indonesians have to endure before they can reach, for instance, the Malaysian shore to work on its plantations.

Upon approaching the shore of Malaysia, their brokers -- known in Indonesian as calo or taikong -- often dump the prospective workers hundreds of meters before the beach, for fear of being spotted by local patrols. "Imagine them having to swim that distance to the beach," he said.

One of the most dangerous routes that illegal workers often choose is through the Malacca Strait. "This route is often dubbed the `tomb of Indonesian workers' because so many people have died there," Mantra said.

Another route to Malaysia saw the sinking of four boats during 1981 to 1983, killing a total of 109 people, he said. He did not give any more recent data.

"Many illegal Indonesian workers fail to return home, but we don't know how many because they're never registered," he said.

Indonesians work abroad either legally, through the Ministry of Manpower, or illegally by abusing their staying permits in the destination countries, or through "backdoor migration".

"The last venue is the really illegal way, and the workers are usually brought to the destination countries by calo (through dangerous routes)," said Mantra.

The danger, however, usually fails to deter workers from continuing their attempt to seek employment abroad because poverty at home leaves them with few alternatives.

"The source (of the problem) is poverty. There's no employment opportunity at home. They feel hopeless," Mantra said.

"The chance to work overseas is the only hope for people from critically poor regions such as Lombok, Flores, Bawean Island and areas in East and West Java," he said.

"They usually want to go to Malaysia or Saudi Arabia as soon as possible and at any cost," he said.

The government has targeted to net as much as US$12.5 billion per year from the approximately 2.5 million Indonesians who work abroad.

According to the Ministry of Manpower, as quoted recently by the Ummat magazine, during the ongoing sixth Five-year Development Plan, which ends next year, Indonesian workers abroad have sent home $1.9 billion, or an increase of 55 percent ($1.2 billion) from those gained during the fifth Five-year Development Plan which ended in 1993.

Glut

Since the start of the ongoing development plan up to Sept. 18 this year, Indonesia has sent a total of 924,168 workers -- 36 percent of them male workers. In the previous development plan period, a total of 652,272 workers were sent with 32 percent of them being male workers.

According to the latest figure from the ministry, legal workers total 408,211 in Malaysia, 319,444 in Saudi Arabia, 86,209 in Singapore, 26,278 in South Korea, 19,630 in United Arab Emirates and 225,567 in Taiwan.

Thousands of others work illegally in these countries.

In addition to poverty, a glut in the labor force at home also helped force many Indonesians to seek jobs abroad. Mantra said in 1990, there were 73.9 million people in the labor force. By 1995, the figure increased to 86.1 million.

"There's a prediction that the number will reach 98.9 million people by 2000," he said.

Indonesians are also attracted to foreign work because of the better salary offered in the receiving countries. In 1990, for instance, workers in Lombok were paid Rp 500 to Rp 1,000 ($0.28) per day, while workers in Malaysia were paid up to Rp 8,000.

Combat

Mantra called on the government to fight the brokers who illegally send Indonesians abroad from further practicing their inhumane business.

"This (their practice) has to be eradicated, even though it is really difficult," he said. "I believe the manpower ministry, though, is already informed on how these people work, and already know about their network.

"These brokers have a network that is similar to those of the mafia or cartels. It'd be very difficult to penetrate into their network," he said. "Arresting one broker, for instance, does not mean we can unravel their whole network."

Mantra suggested better monitoring of labor export companies, the establishment of consular offices in labor-receiving countries to protect Indonesians there, or even the establishment of a separate ministry for migrant workers.

The Ministry of Manpower has recently become the target of widespread criticism following the beheading of Indonesian housemaid Soleha Anam Kadiran for murder in Saudi Arabia. Another migrant worker in Saudi Arabia, Nasiroh Karmudin, escaped death recently for a similar crime after the relatives of the victim forgave her.

The government is also in the process of airlifting home 17,000 "problematic" Indonesians in Saudi Arabia -- some 10,000 of them were workers without proper documents -- using an armada of planes from Garuda Indonesia and the Armed Forces.

The operation is costing the government up to $300 per person. It is being funded by the state-owned workers insurance company PT Jamsostek. (44/swe)