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Indonesia’s Migrant Authority seeks to bring displaced workers home

JAKARTA — The head of Indonesia’s migrant worker authority says he is seeking to repatriate as many as 1.8 million Indonesians who are stuck abroad without work permits.

Indonesian workers ready to fly to Saudi Arabia to work as maids. Reuters file photo

Indonesian workers ready to fly to Saudi Arabia to work as maids. Reuters file photo

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JAKARTA — The head of Indonesia’s migrant worker authority says he is seeking to repatriate as many as 1.8 million Indonesians who are stuck abroad without work permits.

Mr Nusron Wahid, the head of the Agency for the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers, commonly known as BNP2TKI, said related expenses would be covered using the state budget, although he did not elaborate how much it was likely cost.

“There will be a discussion on bringing back 1.8 million illegal migrant workers who do not have a work contract, and we will use the state budget to do it,” Mr Wahid said in Jakarta on Wednesday (Dec 17).

He added the discussion would involve several ministries and cover technical details of the planned repatriation, including legal issues in countries where the undocumented Indonesians worked.

Mr Wahid said a total of 6.2 million Indonesians were working overseas, consisting of nearly 4.4 million documented workers in addition to the undocumented ones. The International Labour Organisation, though, estimates that the number of Indonesians working overseas is at least double the documented figure.

The former lawmaker said most of those without work permits were currently employed in Malaysia, amounting to some 1.2 million workers — most of whom worked for the construction sector or on palm oil plantations.

The rest are scattered in the Middle East, South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Treatment of migrant workers is a major political issue in Indonesia, where young women are frequently recruited from villages and sent to work abroad, typically in Malaysia or Saudi Arabia.

Cases of abuse and extortion, as well as crimes involving those workers, are not uncommon.

Thirty-nine Indonesian domestic workers are on death row in Saudi Arabia.

The Indonesian government and activists have attributed the frequency of such cases to the large number of migrant workers who are unregistered, securing their jobs illegally, which in turn denies them official protection.

Mr Wahid said he also intended to simplify the process that prospective workers must go through if they wish to work abroad legally.

Many migrants skip the formal structure because they regard it as costly and too time consuming, he said.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, though, hesitates to give a quick nod to the BNP2TKI’s plan, with the foreign minister Retno Marsudi herself saying even she was unsure of the 1.8 million unregistered figure.

The foreign ministry handles much of the responsibility for advocacy and general consular services, with BNP2TKI managing the brief within Indonesia.

“I don’t dare to say whether [the figure] could be more or less. I will first need information from our representative offices [abroad],” Ms Marsudi said.

“Our representative offices don’t have data of Indonesian citizens who don’t report or register to us.”

Ms Marsudi said data accuracy was necessary before the planned repatriation could take place, saying it was needed to obtain exit permits from authorities where the workers were stationed.

She added she had discussed the matter with the coordinating minister for human empowerment and culture, Ms Puan Maharani, and that they would follow up on the issue.

Incompatibility of data between the BNP2TKI and the Foreign Ministry is seen in the Malaysia case.

Mr Wahid said there were 1.2 million unregistered Indonesian workers in the neighbouring country, but the ministry’s director general for protection and legal aid for Indonesian citizens, Mr Tatang Razak, said on Wednesday only 300,000 unregistered Indonesians were facing deportation by the Malaysian authorities.

Malaysia has set Dec 31 as the deadline for illegal foreign workers to leave the country, and its Home Ministry has proposed caning as punishment for agents found guilty of bringing in the illegal workers as well as immigration officers and other personnel involved.

There have been concerns that caning will also be carried out on the undocumented workers.

Mr Razak said if that’s the case, the same punishment should be applied to the employers, because they were the ones who keep on demanding workers from abroad.

“The Malaysian authorities should also take action against the users rather than just punish and deport the workers,” Mr Razak said. THE JAKARTA GLOBE

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