Volunteers accused of politicizing labor export issue to discredit govt

Volunteers accused of politicizing labor export issue to discredit govt

Ridwan Max Sijabat, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government has blamed unauthorized volunteers and the mass
media for exposing the much-criticized labor export, which has
brought negative impacts upon many Indonesian workers employed
overseas.

Spokesman for the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration
Hotma Pandjaitan said on Friday that the ministry had detected a
concerted move by certain volunteers and groups to politicize the
labor export issue in order to discredit the government.

"The move is indicated by the systematic exposure by several
mass media of numerous incidents that befell many migrant
workers, and this could affect bilateral ties between Indonesia
and the countries where the workers were employed," he said at a
press conference.

He was referring to the recent move led by volunteer Imam
Prasodjo to help 19 women workers return from Soekarno-Hatta
International Airport to their remote home villages in Cianjur,
West Java. Imam, who is also a lecturer at the University of
Indonesia, was accompanied by a legislator, an airport authority
official and a police officer in providing the women clothes and
some money to buy their bus tickets home.

The 19 workers were returned to Indonesia for developing
problems with their employers and host families in Kuwait and
other Middle Eastern countries, where they were working as
migrant workers.

Imam has stressed that he and other fellow volunteers had no
political motive for their actions, but helped the troubled
workers solely for humanitarian reasons.

The manpower ministry has been also criticized for the sexual
abuse and maltreatment of four other women workers, who arrived
home from the Middle East last Friday. The four, who have
suffered severe distress, are still receiving medical treatment
and counseling at the National Police Hospital in Kramat Jati,
East Jakarta.

The public's anger was roused last year when the government
responded slowly to Malaysian authorities' arresting hundreds of
illegal Indonesian workers and deporting more than 750 others.
Dozens of workers died of hunger and serious illnesses in the
East Kalimantan district of Nunukan, which borders East Malaysia,
after they had lost their overseas livelihood.

The manpower ministry has been criticized for being
unprofessional its management of the labor export and the rampant
extortion of the sector -- from recruitment to training, to
overseas placement, until their return home.

Data from the Association of Indonesian Migrant Workers
(Kopbumi) and the Solidarity for Women (SP) show that 60 migrant
workers have died during their overseas employment, while
hundreds of others have been repatriated for problems with their
overseas employers this year.

The government has placed more than 420,000 workers, mostly in
the Middle East and the Asia Pacific, including Malaysia,
Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Director General for Labor Placement Overseas I Gusti Gede
Arke at the ministry defended the labor export, which he said was
part of the government's program to cope with the unemployment
that has reached an alarming level. He said the negative
incidents were isolated cases of the program that has benefited
millions of Indonesian workers and their families.

"Not only third parties, NGOs and the press, but the
government is also quite concerned over all the incidents that
have befallen our migrant workers. We don't wish them to develop
troubles in their workplaces. Labor extortion is still
rampant ... but the public should know that not only this
ministry, but also many other government agencies are involved in
labor export.

He also revealed that a great many workers had traveled on
tourist visas, or had taken illegal measures through unauthorized
parties to enter foreign countries and find work.

Arke insisted the government had no plans to close down
Terminal 3, a special terminal at the airport dedicated to
dispatching workers to their new posts and to receiving
repatriating migrant workers. The terminal is overcrowded almost
every day, as between 500 and 900 workers arrive at the terminal
daily -- more than that on the eve of the fasting month of
Ramadhan.

"The terminal is managed jointly by state-owned PT Angkasa
Pura, the manpower ministry and labor exporters, and is part of
the labor export system as regulated by Ministerial Decree No.
104A/2002 on labor placement," he said.

Many parties have strongly urged the government to close down
the terminal, where "the satanic circle of labor exploitation
starts, on the workers' trip home following their arrival in
Jakarta".

Arke pledged to tighten the procedures of the labor export to
help decrease the number of troubled workers in the future.

"We are waiting for inputs from concerned parties to help
revamp the labor export program and accelerate it to improve the
government's revenue from the sector."

According to data at the manpower ministry, around one million
workers are working legally overseas, while around 500,000 others
are employed illegally, including 46,000 in United States.

Last year, the government received US$1 billion in revenue
from the export of more than 650,000 workers.