Indonesian workers traded as commodities

(News Terupdate) - The rampant labor extortion and (fatal) labor abuse abroad have seemingly accounted for the rife human trafficking and conflicting interests among government authorities and labor exporter associations at the cost of migrant workers.

According to data at the Migrant Care organization, in the past two months, 38 migrant workers, 20 were female, died of occupational accidents and torture and 21 others, mostly female, were physically abused in their workplace in Malaysia and Saudi Arabia.

The number of physical abuse and fatalities has increased following the establishment in 2007 of a powerful government agency (BNP2TKI) to handle labor placement and protection as it was mandated by the 2004 law on labor placement and protection. The new law took effect with the dissolving of the directorate general for labor placement and protection at the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry in 2005.

But former manpower and transmigration minister Erman Suparno issued a controversial ministerial decree to revive the directorate general, leaving the two institutions in prolonged conflict.

The BNP2TKI, a joint agency comprising 11 ministries, including the Health, Foreign, Justice and Human Rights ministries and the National Police, enjoyed its powerful authority in the first two years of operation since the former manpower and transmigration minister Erman Suparno issued a 2008 ministerial decree to regain the ministry’s authority in certifying prospective migrant workers’ health and competence and revive the Labor Placement Directorate General.

Around 3,000 migrant workers depart every month to work in countries including Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan and those in the Middle East. They pay Rp 160,000 (US$16) each for certification to relevant authorities and $60 to an insurance consortium to cover their departure, employment and return. Their employers also pay around

Rp 15 million each to labor supplying companies for their recruitment and supply.

The conflict between the two institutions was mounting after the Supreme Court annulled the contentious ministerial decree in March 2009 with Erman issuing three ministerial Decrees: No. 6, No.17 and No. 18 of 2009, whose substance is simultaneously similar with the previously annulled decree. Referring to the labor placement and protection law, he insisted the manpower and transmigration minister had its full authority to regulate the labor export.

During the prolonged conflict, the BNP2TKI, mandated by the law to ensure and provide protection for migrant workers, lost its authority to certify the health condition and competence of prospective migrant workers and make a database on Indonesian citizens working overseas. Consequently, many workers were to be employed as housemaids in the informal sector departed without any job training and rights documents and developed troubles with employers in their workplace.

“Too many labor disputes, violence cases and labor abuses have been left unresolved because labor exporters, their associations, insurance companies and the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry have focused on hundreds of billions of rupiah for collection from prospective migrant workers without attention to their health condition, training and competence,” chief of the BNP2TKI, Jumhur Hidayat said.

He accused the ministry’s officials of being corrupt in taking over authority in providing public service such as online registration and health and competence certification. He said many fake certificates and documents were issued to people working overseas and the infringements involved corrupt staff and labor exporters.

Director general for labor placement at the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry, I Gusti Made Arke, stressed the manpower minister’s authority in regulating labor export and pursuing bilateral labor agreements with user countries.

He denied that the ministry issued certifying letters to unfit and untrained prospective migrant workers, saying all documents were issued in accordance with regulations.

Labor exporters have blamed the increasing labor cases on the BNP2TKI, which has played a conflicting role as regulator and operator in labor export, saying the conflicting dual role gave its staff the chance to abuse their power.

“The power abuse has been indicated in rife labor extortion in dealing with returning migrant workers at Terminal 4 at the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport and with the government-to-government labor export with Japan and South Korea,” said Rusjdi Basalamah, deputy chairman of the Indonesian Labor Supplying Companies’ Association (Apjati).

He said BNP2TKI wasted Rp 500 billion allocated from the 2009 state budget as it supplied only 20,000 workers to Japan and South Korea. “We know that workers supplied to the two countries were charged between Rp 5 million and Rp 20 million each.”

Chairman of the Indonesian Labor Supplying Enterprises’ Association (Himsataki) Yunus Yamani concurred, but he admitted that many labor exporters had breached the labor export mechanism, including the purchase of health and job competence titles for unfit and untrained workers, to make profit as high as possible.


Migrant Care executive director Anis Hidayah called for a dire ratification in 1990 of the UN Convention on protection of migrant workers and their family and a pro-migrant worker law to show the government’s commitment in ensuring the humane treatment of migrant workers and their protection, mainly regarding disputes with their foreign employers.

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