Pregnancy tests urged for migrants

Multa Fidrus, Tangerang

Indonesian migrant worker activist Normawati has proposed to the government and migrant workers recruitment agencies to make it mandatory for workers to use contraceptives and to take a urine test in an effort to minimize the number of women workers getting pregnant while working abroad.

"Besides teaching them domestic work, the agencies must also teach workers about the use of cotraceptives to prevent pregnancy," she said on Tuesday.

She added that returning migrant workers should undergo a pregnancy test.

Normawati estimated that on average 20 women workers returned home with babies each month from the Middle East. The number, monitored since January, did not include those who got pregnant while working there.

Every day, between 800 and 1,000 workers arrive at the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Cengkareng while the number of workers leaving is between 1,600 and 3,000 people a day.

"Those workers got pregnant mostly because they were raped by their employers," she said. "However, there are some who get money from their employers to have sex."

Normawati regretted that the government has done nothing to help the workers.

"The government does not do anything to help either the mothers or the children although it collects Rp 25,000 (US$2.8) from each returning worker," she said. "Why does the government chose to spend Rp 33 billion to renovate the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration training center in Ciracas (East Jakarta) to replace the airport's terminal III?"

According to Normawati, many workers handed over their babies to orphanages for adoption because they could not bear the shame.

Some six million migrant workers are working as domestic helpers and laborers in 16 countries. Indonesia is the second largest exporter of labor after the Philippines which sends around 10 million workers overseas.

The workers contributed US$1.86 billion to Indonesia's foreign exchange, a decrease from 2002's $2.3 billion. This year, the government expects a $5 billion contribution from the workers.

"Migrant workers are the second contributor after oil and gas to the country's foreign exchange reserves. Why doesn't the government give them adequate protection?" Normawati said.

The government has submitted a bill on labor protection to the House of Representatives and appointed manpower minister Jacob Nuwa Wea as its representative during the bill's deliberation. The bill is expected to be endorsed in September.