Skills protect workers from abuse overseas

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.