RI stops export of informal workers
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The Indonesian government has suspended the export of migrant workers with jobs in the informal sector in all designated countries citing the workers' incompetence and language barriers.
In his letter dated Feb. 10 sent to all governors, regents, mayors, the Association of Indonesian Labor Export Companies and all its members, as well as the Migrant Workers Placement Service Body, Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Jacob Nuwa Wea said the decision was made after "a thorough analysis" that the country's migrant workers for informal jobs, such as housemaids, were both unskilled and unable to master languages in the countries they were placed.
"These (shortcomings) happen because most labor export firms have not provided enough job and language training before they send the workers," Jacob said in his letter.
Jacob categorized informal migrant workers into housemaids, baby sitters and caregivers for the elderly.
Any migrant workers who have completed all requirements for placement before Feb. 1 are exempted from the suspension, but their departure must take place before Feb. 28.
There are around 4 million Indonesians working overseas, mostly in the informal sector. Indonesia has been exporting informal migrant workers to the Middle East and Asia-Pacific regions for decades.
The manpower ministry had issued on Feb. 1 a circular to all labor export companies, ordering them to stop sending workers to the Middle East due to the escalating tension in Iraq.
Jacob said in his latest letter that the country's informal migrant workers were "psychologically immature" and lacked knowledge of local cultures and conditions of their prospective work places.
The minister said those problems greatly contributed to the high number of fatal accidents involving Indonesian informal migrant workers. The ministry data showed that at least 75 Indonesian housemaids had fallen to death from their employers' apartments in Singapore since 1999.
"Based on these facts, the ministry has made a decision not to focus on quantity but quality of migrant workers to be sent to overseas," Jacob said.
In the future, the ministry will apply a quota policy on each labor export agency, in a bid to prevent over-supply in the placement of workers overseas.
Jacob said during the suspension period, all labor import companies were required to provide job and language training, as well as religious teaching appropriate for each culture.
The suspension has sparked protests from the association of labor export companies (Apjati), which accused the government of shifting the blame and seeking a scapegoat for the long-standing problems facing the country's migrant workers.
Apjati chairman Husein Alaydrus said labor export companies were not obliged to provide training for prospective migrant workers in the first place but simply to send them overseas.
He said the licenses obtained by the companies allowed them to place migrant workers, whereas the responsibility to improve the quality of migrant workers was given to companies other than Apjati members.
"The responsibility to improve skills and language proficiency of migrant workers is held by a special institution known as overseas employment training agencies which are authorized by the Directorate General of Domestic Labor Placement," Husein said.
He said some Apjati members also operate training agencies but it did not mean that the labor export companies could be held responsible for the poor quality of the migrant workers.
The ministerial decree No. 104A/2002 issued by Jacob last year makes it clear that labor export companies are not responsible for training for prospective migrant workers. Training courses are not a requirement to obtain a license to start a labor export company.
Husein suggested that during the period of suspension, the manpower ministry should improve the mechanism to accredit migrant workers' training providers.
"If the improvement is not done, the suspension will mean nothing," Husein said.