Skills protect workers from abuse overseas
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Workers employed overseas are required to possess basic skills and knowledge, speak a foreign language and know their rights, to defend themselves from possible violence and abuse during their employment, says a minister.
"Law No. 39/2004 on labor protection, bilateral agreements with user countries and the appointment of labor attaches do not guarantee the full protection of workers employed overseas. Many workers have thus come across difficulties, been abused by their employers, or traded by middlemen because they have no basic capability to protect themselves," Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Fahmi Idris said while seeing off over 1,000 workers who were heading to Taiwan on Saturday.
"Those who wants to work as housemaids in the Middle East", Fahmi cited as an example, "must master household chores and the Arabic language.
"Many workers encounter trouble in their workplace because they have no basic skills and knowledge and this has frequently disappointed their employers," Fahmi said. "The disappointment has caused the employers to abuse their workers.
"Therefore, workers should not leave for overseas without the presence of skills and labor contracts, otherwise they will be abused, extorted and mistreated," Fahmi said.
Fahmi insisted that the government would continue to supply workers overseas due to the lack of job opportunities at home.
"Indonesia has suspended its labor supply to the Middle East since Indonesia has not signed any bilateral agreements with most countries in the region as required by our labor protection law. The foreign ministry is still lobbying Saudi Arabia, Oman, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan to sign bilateral agreements in the labor sector to ensure the protection for our workers there," he said.
The minister added that besides assessing the performance of more than 600 labor exporters, the government had stepped up measures to eradicate the rampant extortion of workers at Terminal three of Soekarno-Hatta International Airport.
Director General of Labor Export at the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry I Gusti Made Arka, said that despite the ongoing expulsion of illegal immigrants from Malaysia, the demand for Indonesian workers had been on the rise.
"Following the two-year suspension, Taiwan has demanded 70,000 workers from Indonesia while South Korea is in need of 250,000 this year. Tens of thousands of job seekers are still undergoing labor training at numerous centers to meet the increasing demand," he said.
Indonesia resumed its labor export to Taiwan following the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce (Kadin) and its Taiwan counterpart, TETO, in Denpasar, Bali, on Dec. 17, 2004. Taiwan unilaterally suspended the labor supply from Indonesia in August, 2002, following the rampant extortion of Indonesian workers employed in the territory.