The Many Who Get Lost in the Red Tape Muddle

The Many Who Get Lost in the Red Tape Muddle

Suparmin has since 2008 been shuttling between Jakarta and his hometown of Purwodadi in Central Java to try and find news of his daughter, who went to work in Malaysia in 2006.

Wiwik Hariyanti was only 16 when she left, and Suparmin says he wanted her to go on to vocational school here.

“Things didn’t go as I planned because I didn’t have enough money to pay the entrance fee,” he says.

“Wiwik felt so depressed and ashamed that she couldn’t continue her studies, so she decided to find work in Malaysia. I let her go.”

She communicated regularly with her parents until 2008, when nothing more was heard from her, Suparmin says. “I went to the placement agency that got her the job, I went to the Manpower Ministry, the Foreign Ministry and the BNP2TKI [National Board for the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Overseas Workers], but I got no answers,” he says.

“I later found out that Wiwik’s data was falsified by the placement agency, her age in particular and her marital status. I didn’t realize that at the time because I couldn’t read or write. Nor did I really understand the requirements to be a migrant worker. As far as I knew, she went to Malaysia through an authorized placement agency.”

For parents like Suparmin, the potential danger faced by their children working overseas is unnecessary. Why, they question, does the government not provide enough jobs  at home?

“I never dreamed that my child would work aboard as a migrant worker, because I believe that Indonesia is a rich country,” Suparmin says.

For Fatihudin, 45, who used to work in Malaysia, the choice of whether to seek work at home or abroad is an easy one to make.

“If I could choose, I wouldn’t be a migrant worker,” he says.

“I’d work in Indonesia, where I could stay with my family and provide my children with a good education.” But the choice is not that simple, he points out.

“It’s no secret that even though Indonesia is such a rich country, it has limited employment opportunities,” he says.

That lack of opportunity is what prompted him to go to Malaysia in 1998, after registering with the manpower office in Bojonegoro, East Java. But that data was never shared with the Indonesian Embassy in Malaysia.

“It didn’t just happen to me, but also to another 70 migrant workers who were sent there at that time,” Fatihudin says.

“We only found out after we got fired by our employers. When we went to the embassy to ask for help, they claimed they didn’t have our data, which made us illegal migrant workers.”

What perplexes him is how the government could have let this happen. “Why did the manpower office turn us into illegal migrants, despite the fact that we paid all the required fees?” he asks.

The Jakarta Legal Aid Foundation (LBH Jakarta), which has taken up the cases of Suparmin and Fatihudin, says it received 27 reports in 2009 and 2010 regarding migrant workers’ cases, including allegations of human trafficking, torture and withholding of salaries. 

SBY to Focus on Migrant Protection in Geneva Address

SBY to Focus on Migrant Protection in Geneva Address

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono vowed on Monday to seek increased protections for Indonesian migrant workers during his address at the 100th International Labor Conference in Geneva today.

In a press conference prior to his departure, Yudhoyono said it was in Indonesia’s best interests to protect its workers abroad.

“That’s what I will say in my speech,” he said. “I will call on other countries that host our migrant workers to [shield them].”

He added the scope of the problems facing migrant workers was complex, which prompted the need for a national policy on managing such issues.

“Just so you know, Indonesia has ratified several very important conventions on workers,” Yudhoyono said.

“There are seven or eight key conventions. Indonesia was one of the first countries in Asean to do so. That shows how serious we are about tackling the problems facing our workers abroad.”

However, Anis Hidayah, executive director of the nongovernmental group Migrant Care, told the Jakarta Globe that the government had not ratified the International Labor Organization’s conventions on domestic workers or migrant workers.

“The government has just ratified the eight basic ILO conventions, including those on forced labor, equality and non-discrimination, freedom of association and protection of the right to organize,” she said.

“But it still hasn’t ratified the conventions on domestic workers or migrant workers. We must question why the government keeps putting of the ratification of these conventions, even in light of the fact that the conditions faced by Indonesian migrant workers are of serious concern.”

Anis said Yudhoyono’s claims of commitment to worker protection had failed to translate to action.

“It sounds like a joke when you have reports saying that Indonesia has successfully ratified the ILO conventions on migrant and domestic workers, when in fact Indonesia hasn’t done it yet.”

“So it’s very important that after the president gives his speech at the ILO conference, he must order the relevant government institutions to work on ratifying the ILO conventions.”

Retno Dewi, chairwoman of the Indonesian Workers Association (ATKI), said the failure to ratify these conventions had led to the 2004 Law on the Protection of Migrant Workers being far from effective in stipulating workers’ rights.

“Only eight of the 108 articles in the law touch on the rights of migrant workers, but they do so in a vague, ambiguous manner,” she said. Domestic workers in the country fared no better in terms of protection, she added.

“There are no laws on the statutes that recognize the rights of domestic workers,” Retno said.

Additional reporting by BeritaSatu

Govt Reviews Migrant Training After Maid Tragedy

Govt Reviews Migrant Training After Maid Tragedy

Officials on Friday vowed to review training programs for migrant workers as news reached the country that a maid who had attempted suicide after failing a Singaporean placement test had died in the hospital.

Sadono, the Asia-Pacific director for protection at the National Board for the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Overseas Workers (BNP2RKI), said the state would ensure that workers were prepared for life abroad before approving their permits.

“Workers who have not completed their training cannot be placed in any country to avoid any [problem] over the lack of skills or language training,” he said.

Last week, Sulastri Wardoyo, 26, tried to commit suicide by hanging herself at a hostel apparently because she flunked an English-language test three times, preventing her from working in the city-state.

Media reports said she suffered brain damage after the suicide attempt and was brought to Khoo Teck Puat Hospital. Staff claimed that she had been depressed over the failure.

On Friday, the Straits Times reported that Sulastri passed away on Wednesday after being confined in intensive care.

Reyna Usman, secretary for training at the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration, said Sulastri’s case highlighted the need to prepare workers mentally for the stresses of life abroad.

“[Aside from] language skills, they also need to prepare mentally,” she said, adding that the government should find out why Sulastri failed the test.

“It is very important for the government to craft pro-training policies. This needs to be discussed nationally,” she said.

The government requires private recruitment agencies to give preparation courses for workers and state bodies like the State Ministry for Women’s Empowerment also teaches skills.

But Reyna said the state should not depend on recruiters to provide quality instruction.

Anis Hidayah, the executive director of Migrant Care, said on Thursday that the government needed to “tighten supervision” of placement agencies.

She said migrant workers’ readiness should be measured by their ability to speak the language of their employer country, their completion of administrative requirements and the skills they need for the job.

Reyna said the government would evaluate the preparations provided by placement agencies.

“I acknowledge that training programs are still weak and the government needs to evaluate the migrant-worker training system,” she said.

“It would even be better if the government will also be involved in giving training to the migrant workers. That way, we can improve the quality of the workers we send abroad,” she added.

Returning Migrants to Be Retrained

Returning Migrants to Be Retrained  

The government is planning to provide training centers for the thousands of workers who have been repatriated from Saudi Arabia after overstaying their visas to work there illegally. 

More than 2,000 workers, the last batch to be brought home by the government, arrived in Jakarta on Wednesday. 

Manpower and Transmigration Minister Muhaimin Iskandar said the government was in the process of preparing 38 training centers for the former migrants, most of whom worked as domestics. 

“This is basically a business skills training which can be an alternative means for them to make a living for themselves and their families,” he said. “Therefore, instead of looking for an informal job aboard, they can have a job in their home country,” he said.

Roostiawati, head of foreign cooperation at the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration, told the Jakarta Globe that the centers would be aimed at encouraging people to become entrepreneurs rather than job seekers.

She added that the centers would be established in districts where large numbers of the workers had come from, and would focus on using locally available commodities to spur business growth. 

“Therefore, by establishing the training skill center making use of the local commodities, the migrant workers can use their skills to create their own jobs so they do not have to go abroad to work,” she said.

Muhaimin said that among other skills, the training program would include workshops on how to set up and operate livestock farms, clothing shops and beauty salons.

He declined to say when the centers would open.

Earlier, the government had arranged flights back to Indonesia for more than 2,000 workers who had overstayed their visas or who were found to have worked in Saudi Arabia illegally. Some had misused their hajj permits. 

Indonesia Plans Boat Mission for Workers Stuck in Saudi

Indonesia Plans Boat Mission for Workers Stuck in Saudi

The government will send a ship to ferry home the nearly 3,000 remaining Indonesian workers who mostly have overstayed their visas in Saudi Arabia, an official said on Friday.

Roostiawati, head of foreign cooperation at the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration, said it would bring home 2,927 migrant workers, the last batch to be repatriated by the state.

Earlier, the government had arranged flights back to Indonesia for more than 2,000 workers who had overstayed their visas or who were found to have worked in Saudi illegally. Some had misused their hajj permits.

Out of work and with no means to return to their homeland, thousands of these workers have been living under the Kandara Bridge in Jeddah.

Roostiawati said the Labobar, a 3,245-capacity vessel, would set sail on Sunday to pick up the workers in Jeddah. It is expected to return to Jakarta in 25 days.

The Labobar is scheduled to leave Jakarta’s Tanjung Priok harbor on Sunday at 3p.m. and is expected back in the same port on around May 2 or 3.

She said the ship would be manned by a crew of 161 people, including medical staff.

Roostiawati said the government opted to charter a ship because it was “the most efficient way.”

“With the ship, we can pick them all up at once, and we can [process their immigration documents] on the ship. Therefore, they can go directly to their hometown once they arrive in Jakarta,” she said.

“For sure, we are going to provide them with meals three times a day and also [health care],” the ministry official added.

Manpower Minister Muhaimin Iskandar said on Friday that the government would be “not be selective in repatriating Indonesian workers living under the bridge in Jeddah.”

The minister said they would be brought home regardless of their offenses.

Many of the Indonesians in Jeddah had legally entered Saudi Arabia as migrant workers, but they later ran into problems with their employers.

Others arrived there with a hajj visa, issued for minor pilgrimages to Mecca, but illegally sought work in the country. They account for 30 percent of overstaying workers, the ministry said.

“We will also repatriate the people who went to Jeddah with a hajj visa,” Muhaimin said. “All the travel expenses will be paid by the government.”

He said his office and other concerned institutions would improve the placement of migrant workers abroad, especially in the Middle East.

Interns Return From Japan With Optimism and Cash

Interns Return From Japan With Optimism and Cash

A group of 104 Indonesians returned from an internship in Japan with money in their pockets and invaluable knowledge on Thursday night after finishing a three-year internship program.

Bagus Marijanto, the director of internship training in the ministry of manpower, said on Friday that the program which covered the electronics, engineering, manufacturing and building sectors, served to help decrease poverty in Indonesia.

"Since 1993, we have worked together with Japan’s International Manpower Development of Medium and Small Enterprises [IMM]," Bagus said. "We have successfully sent 30.856 people to Japan and 25,584 have returned to Indonesia. Currently there are still 5,272 interns in Japan," he added.

The next stage in the process, he said, was that the ministry will help them find jobs.

"After they return, we provide them with a certificate from Japan International Training Cooperation Organization [JITCO] and IMM. They will also get a small business capital to start," Bagus said.

"For those who still want to work, we will help them find a job with Japanese companies and arrange job interviews.”

Mohammad Fahri Sofyan, a former intern from Klaten, Central Java said he was pleased with this program.

"I graduated from science class at a public senior high school. Then I took a course at a training center, but it is difficult to find a decent job in Indonesia, so I decided to join this program." Fahri said.

Fahri, who earned 80,000 Yen ($970) per month in the first year and then 135,000 yen per month after that, said he will put the money in the bank and look for job in indonesia.

"I hope I can get a job and save the money for my future.”

Another intern from Central Java, Anton Eko Hardiyanto, also praised the program.

"I will say that besides earning money, I have also learned a lot of knowledge from Japan and its people,” he said.

"Now that I’m back, I want to use my knowledge to help develop the country by sharing with other people who are willing to learn and work,” Anton said, adding that he plans to build a small business with the money he earned.

The program is held annually by the ministry of manpower. Anyone with senior high school or vocational school certificate is welcome to apply. For further information on the program, go tohttp://www.depnakertrans.go.id

Hundreds of Migrant Workers Repatriated From Saudi Arabia

Hundreds of Migrant Workers Repatriated From Saudi Arabia

Hundreds of Indonesian migrant workers who have been forced to live under a bridge in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, arrived in Jakarta on Friday morning.

Rosyandi Monzier, spokesman for the National Board for the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Overseas Workers (BNP2TKI), said 336 Indonesians arrived at the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport at 10:20 a.m.

The group comprised 302 migrant workers, 15 children and 19 infants.

The Indonesian government had paid for the flights and would pay for the workers to return to their home villages throughout Indonesia.

Two of the returning workers spoken to by the Jakarta Globe spoke positively of their experiences in Saudi Arabia.

Zaenab, 34, from Sumedang, said she was happy to be home but wanted to return to Saudi Arabia.

“I earned 800 riyals [Rp 1.9 million] per month and it was a lot of money. I was lucky to have a good employer, therefore I want to go back to Jeddah,” Zaenab said.

She said if her employers were not good people, she would not have worked for them for 2 years and 4 months.

Asked how she ended up living under the infamous bridge, Zaenab said she regularly sent her money home to her family and did not have enough cash to return home once her contract ended.

Halimah, 50, from Situbondo, had a similar story but unlike Zaenab said she did not want to return to the desert kingdom.

“I think it’s time for me to rest after 5 years of hard work in Jeddah to send my children to University,” Halimah said.

“The 5 years were a good experience: I earned 1200 real per month; my children have been going to university. What would I look for next? I am too tired to work as a cleaning lady in Saudi,” she said.

“I miss my family and I want to be with them,” she added.

No Hard Feelings After Life Under Saudi Bridge

No Hard Feelings After Life Under Saudi Bridge

Even after being forced to live under a bridge in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, some Indonesian workers repatriated by the government on Friday said their experience hadn’t been all bad.

Zaenab, 34, from Sumedang in West Java, said she was happy to be home but still had plans to return to Saudi Arabia.

“I earned 800 riyals [$213] a month and it was a lot of money,” she said. “I was lucky to have a good employer.”

Zaenab ended up living under the bridge because she sent all her money home and had none left when her 28-month contract expired.

She was one of 336 Indonesian workers repatriated by the government on Friday — the second batch this week.

Hundreds of Indonesian workers were found to have been living under Kandara bridge in Jeddah after overstaying their visas and encountering problems related to their employment contracts.

The Indonesian government paid for the workers’ flights and the remainder of the trip back to their respective hometowns.

Another worker, Halimah, 50, said she had no plans to return to Saudi Arabia, but not because of any bad experiences she had there.

“I think it’s time for me to rest,” she said.

“The five years were a good experience. I earned 1,200 riyals a month, and my children have been going to university. I am now tired of working as a cleaning lady. I miss my family and I want to be with them.”

Anis Hidayah, director of Migrant Care, reminded the government that the work of solving the problem was not finished yet.

“It is easy to bring them back home, but will [the government] investigate the reason why they were under the bridge in the first place?” she asked.

Moratorium Putting Maids Out of Work, Activists Say

Moratorium Putting Maids Out of Work, Activists Say

The government moratorium on sending Indonesian domestic migrant workers to Malaysia has worsened the unemployment situation in the country, as alternative jobs have not been provided for the thousands of workers slated to leave for Malaysia, activists said on Sunday.

Speaking at a women’s rights seminar in Jakarta on Sunday, Thaufiek Zulbahary, head of the migration program division from the group Women’s Solidarity for Human Rights (Solidaritas Perempuan), said imposing the ban was a responsive move but not the best solution to tackle violence against Indonesian migrant workers.

“The government does not care about what happens to the workers [barred from leaving for Malaysia in 2009]. The workers were simply sent back to their villages without being given any alternative prospects for employment,” Thaufiek said.

“The reason those workers chose to look for jobs in Malaysia as domestic helpers in the first place was because they had no opportunities in other sectors in their home country,” she added.

The moratorium has been in place since 2009, when an increasing number of cases of abuse against Indonesian domestic workers sparked outrage in the country.

Malaysia and Indonesia are still in the process of discussing terms and conditions for the moratorium to be lifted.

According to the National Board for the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Overseas Workers (BNP2TKI), approximately 36,000 workers were barred from leaving for Malaysia in June 2009 when the moratorium was implemented.

The House of Representatives was scheduled to revise the 2004 Law on the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Workers Abroad in 2010, but the bill is still pending.

Roostiawati, head of foreign cooperation at the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration’s directorate for overseas worker placement, said the government had no plans to revoke the moratorium in the near future.

“We will only revoke the moratorium on sending migrant workers to Malaysia once we have improved the system for protecting our workers,” she said.

“Ensuring the protection of our migrant workers will require cooperation from other departments and ministries.”

Roostiawati said that from January this year, her ministry would be working in partnership with labor-intensive sectors on plans to absorb the prospective migrant workers into domestic industries.

The ministry is currently researching the industry potential of 159 districts in West Java, Central Java and West Nusa Tenggara where many applicants for overseas work come from.

The ministry hopes to accommodate potential migrant workers in factories, agriculture, plantations and handicrafts so they will not need to look for work abroad

State, NGO Offer Opposing Claims About Maid’s Rape in Malaysia

State, NGO Offer Opposing Claims About Maid’s Rape in Malaysia

Camelia Pasandaran, Elisabeth Oktofani & Antara

The state body in charge of migrant workers’ welfare denied allegations that an Indonesian maid had been raped by a Malaysian government minister three years ago, but an NGO said otherwise.

Jumhur Hidayat, chairman of the National Board for the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Overseas Workers (BNP2TKI), said on Friday that the maid, identified as Rubingah, had denied being raped.

“There has been a direct written explanation from Rubingah that she was never raped while working in Malaysia,” Jumhur was quoted by Antara as saying.

The rape allegation emerged earlier this month in Malaysian media, based on a WikiLeaks document of an investigation by Migrant Care, an Indonesian nongovernmental organization.

The alleged perpetrator, Rais Yatim, Malaysia’s minister of communication and culture, has vehemently denied the claims.

But Anis Hidayah, Migrant Care’s director, said Rubingah had claimed at the time that she had been raped.

“She told us in 2007 that she was raped,” Anis said.

“We never meant to publicize the investigation, but after it was reported by WikiLeaks, we’ve had to open it.”

“We’re not in a position to say whether the allegations are true or not, and I don’t wish to go against the BNP2TKI’s statement,” she added.

Migrant Care, she said, had already submitted a copy of its 2007 investigation report to the National Police and the Indonesian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur.

She urged the state to speed up the implementation of a memorandum of understanding with Malaysia on increased protection for Indonesian migrant workers.

The two countries have been deadlocked over the issues of minimum wages for migrant workers and who must shoulder workers’ placement fees.

Wahyu Susilo, a migrant worker policy analyst, said the memorandum’s provisions should comply with International Labor Organization standards to prevent the exploitation of Indonesian workers in Malaysia.

“Currently, employers don’t allow their workers to retain their own passports or to have a weekly day off,” he said.

Many Indonesian workers, he added, are also barred from associating with fellow workers or contacting their embassy.

But Anis said it would be hard to get the two governments to adopt ILO standards since neither country had laws enshrining these protections.

“If both countries had laws guaranteeing workers’ rights as per ILO standards, then they could implement the [memorandum] sooner,” she said.

Both countries, she added, had also failed to ratify the pertinent ILO conventions.

Neither Indonesia nor Malaysia has ratified Convention 98 on freedom of association and collective bargaining. Indonesia has not ratified Conventions 138 and 182 on abolishing child labor.

Malaysia did ratify Convention 105 on eliminating forced and compulsory labor in 1958, only to reverse its decision in 1990.

Anis said it was crucial to have the memorandum in place to end worker abuse as well as to prevent Indonesian workers from going to Malaysia illegally to find work, in defiance of a moratorium imposed by Jakarta in the wake of abuses.

New System to Register Migrant Workers Online

New System to Register Migrant Workers Online

The government has launched an online registry to collect data on current and prospective migrant workers in a bid to prevent them from going abroad illegally.

The pilot project, which was launched on Thursday, is a joint effort by the National Board for the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Overseas Workers (BNP2TKI) and the government of West Java, which has the highest number of migrant workers of all the country’s provinces.

The system, which will be tested in West Java first before spreading to East Java and West Nusa Tenggara, then to the rest of the country, will record personal and work information, including details about the job and departure dates.

Muhammad Jumhur Hidayat, chairman of the BNP2TKI, said the online system was the first of its kind in Indonesia.

“Other than providing data on migrant workers, this system will also help us avoid the risk of human trafficking and falsification of documents used to send worker abroad illegally,” he said.

“The data will be collected by the manpower offices in each district in the province, and will be made accessible by manpower offices in all other districts in West Java.”

The rollout of the online system comes ahead of the planned introduction of a call center later this year, which the BNP2TKI says will serve as a hot line for migrant workers seeking to report any abuse or other difficulties they face.

Jumhur said once the call center was operational, it would use data from the online system to identify workers in trouble and update information on specific workers.

The call center will also accommodate complaints, queries and reports from the general public, as well as prospective, current and former migrant workers and their families.

Roostiawati, head of foreign cooperation at the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration’s directorate for migrant worker placement, said the online system was being introduced in West Java because it was one of the main sources of the country’s labor and the provincial government was able to support it with funding.

Meanwhile, Wahyu Susilo, a migration analyst with the International NGO Forum on Indonesian Development, doubted the system could do anything to resolve the problems facing the country’s migrant workers.

“It’s nothing new because the BNP2TKI used to have an online system,” he said. “But was it effective? No, it wasn’t.

“If the previous system really did work, why has the BNP2TKI failed to answer even the most basic questions, such as how many Indonesians are working overseas?”

Wahyu added that rather than spend money on a new system, the BNP2TKI should have evaluated and improved the old system.

He said a crackdown was instead needed on unscrupulous placement agencies that charged lower fees but sent workers overseas illegally and without proper documentation.