Stop human exports

Stop human exports

From Koran Tempo

The news carried by Koran Tempo labeling Indonesia as the world's largest human exporter is interesting and surprising -- especially the quantity of this human traffic -- from 75,000 to 1 million citizens sent overseas a year, including women and children as the most vulnerable groups.

This trade in humans has become a lucrative business for entrepreneurs. One wonders whether these businesspeople ever seriously consider the fate of the workers the send overseas or do they convince themselves that these laborers will improve their livelihoods abroad? It is likely they do neither.

This labor export phenomenon stems from the country's significant population growth and is also partly due to the less- than-successful implementation of family planning programs in recent times. Consequently, a lot of workers lack the proper skills to survive in the job market.

Nonetheless, unskilled job seekers as citizens of Indonesia have the right to survive in their own country and should be given the opportunity to try their luck at home; not be forced into exporting their skills and end up being left neglected overseas.

FENITA D.A. West Java