Scholars urge halt to export of workers

M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Scholars and activists have demanded the government halt the export of workers until the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration overhauls its worker recruitment system and the House of Representatives endorses a migrant workers protection bill.

Scholar Nurcholish Madjid said on Saturday the government must draft an entirely new platform of policies to protect migrant workers.

"The policies must take into account the rights of workers to job security, decent jobs and proper training prior to their departure," he said when visiting returned female migrant workers being treated at the Soekanto Police Hospital in Kramat Jati, East Jakarta.

In the last two weeks, 15 workers returning from the Middle East have been treated at the hospital for physical injuries and mental depression allegedly caused by abuse they suffered at the hands of their former employers.

Some of the workers said they could not cope with the constant violence inflicted by the employers, including sexual and physical abuse, and fled their jobs.

Hidayat Nur Wahid, a lecturer at the Jakarta Islamic University, called on the government to stop sending migrant workers abroad unless it could draw up new mechanisms to protect the workers.

"The government has ignored the workers although they have been recognized as foreign exchange earners that contribute a great deal to the country," he told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

Scholar Masdar F. Mas'udi, director of the Indonesian Society for Pesantren Development, also said more must be done to protect migrant workers.

"The government repeatedly has said that migrant workers have contributed much to the country's economy, but it does nothing to help them," he said.

An activist with the Consortium for Migrant Workers Protection, Normawati, urged the House to endorse a migrant workers protection bill.

"Without legal protection the lives of our migrant workers are in jeopardy," she said.

Legislator Didik Supriyanto of House Commission VII for population and welfare said the House would begin deliberating the bill on Nov. 3.

The bill outlines the obligation and rights of migrant workers, worker recruitment agencies and the government. The bill also outlines, among other items, a worker recruitment system, a training system, work contracts and legal counsel for workers.

Didik said that under the bill, a body would be set up to protect workers and monitor the activities of recruitment agencies. The body would be chaired by the manpower minister, with assistance from relevant institutions including the foreign ministry, the justice and human rights ministry and the police.

Nurcholis expressed his disappointment with the manpower minister, Jacob Nuwa Wea, who has not visited the hospitalized workers.

"That shows the minister's ignorance," he said.

He also compared the Indonesian government with the Philippine government.

"The Philippine government goes all out to help its workers if something bad happen to them," he said.

House Deputy Speaker Muhaimin Iskandar has demanded the resignation of Jacob for his failure to protect migrant workers.

Saudi Arabian Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Ali bin Ibrahim Al-Namlah has also encouraged the Indonesian government to provide proper training for its workers before sending them abroad. He said the Indonesian workers' inability to speak Arabic and to operate home appliances had led to problems between workers and employers.