Taiwan lifts ban on Indonesian workers

Ridwan Max Sijabat, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Labor recruitment and export agencies hailed Taiwan's decision to lift the two-year ban imposed on Indonesian workers, saying that some 70,000 workers who had formerly worked in Taiwan were ready to return to the territory.

The chairman of the Asia-Pacific Labor Exporter Association (Ajaspac), Anung Sugiarto, said the lifting of the ban was a result of enhanced bilateral ties between Jakarta and Taipei and the new government's intensive lobbying to help cope with the unemployment problem at home.

"Taipei lifted the ban at the request of Indonesia," he said here on Wednesday.

The ban was lifted following a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to enhance ties between the two states in terms of labor issues in Bali on Dec. 17. The agreement was signed by Taipei Economic and Trade Representative to Indonesia David Y.L. Lin and his Indonesian counterpart Ferry Yahya in the presence of Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Fahmi Idris and his Taiwanese counterpart Chen Chu.

The MOU was signed quietly since Indonesia accepts the One China Policy, that bars it from establishing diplomatic ties with Taiwan.

Taiwan suspended temporarily the recruitment of Indonesian workers after it received complaints over the exorbitant fees charged by Indonesian recruitment agencies and their unwillingness to provide adequate legal protection and insurance for workers.

The suspension was issued because the number of foreign workers leaving the workplace and absenteeism exceeded the Taiwan authorities's tolerable limit of 2.4 percent.

Many workers left the workplace or stayed away from work in protest over the high fees charged by their Indonesian sponsors. The fees are deducted from their monthly wages.

The Indonesian government has promised to drop brokers' fees charged for each worker by 30 percent (of his/her salary) to about 40,000 New Taiwan dollars (US$1,230). The two sides also agreed on how employers and laborers should split the cost of health insurance and other fees.

Paul Minggo, another labor exporter, said that an estimated 70,000 workers whose labor contracts had terminated before the ban, have contacted their own suppliers in a bid to return to Taiwan.

"A small number of them has departed while most are still preparing the necessary documents to go back to Taiwan," he said, citing that around 35,000 Indonesians are working at present in Taiwan and most of them are employed as housemaids and in construction projects, the manufacturing sector and hospitals.

Meanwhile, Fahmi questioned the poor insurance scheme provided by Indonesian labor exporters for the workers they sent overseas. The minister said he was considering an overall review of the legal protection for Indonesian workers employed abroad.

Fahmi raised the question when he handed over Rp 418 million to the relatives of Sumiati Sumarsih binti Sahwid, a woman worker from Subang, West Java, who died in a traffic accident in Taipei on June 17, 2004.

PT Bahana Trimitra Selaras who sponsored Sumiati's departure to Taipei paid only Rp 4 million in compensation.

The compensation was handed over to Sumiati' son Eko in the presence of his grandfather Sahwid. The fund was given in the form of bank cheque since it was transferred through Bank BNI.

Over the last three years, at least 16 Indonesian workers have died due to work-related accidents and diseases, including SARS, and seven of whom have not yet received any compensation.