RI migrant workers 'must keep their passports'

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Fri, 06/29/2007 10:26 AM

Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Without passports in hand, what can Indonesian migrant workers do to avoid abuse and beatings at the hands of their employers?

Ceriyati, a 33-year-old Indonesian migrant worker in Malaysia, answered the question by climbing out 15th-story apartment window using a makeshift rope made of knotted pieces of cloth.

She was willing to risk her life to escape the alleged abuse she was suffering at the hands of her employers.

Fortunately for Ceriyati, her spectacular escape attracted wide coverage by the international media, and embarrassed officials from Malaysia and Indonesia.

Less spectacularly, but no less dramatic, was Samirah, who was found standing outside a doughnut shop in Long Island, United States, for days, muttering that she had been injured by her employer and wanted to return to Indonesia.

Officials and observers at a seminar on human trafficking, organized by the U.S. Embassy here, agreed that the cases are just two of many involving the abuse of Indonesian migrant workers who are unable to flee because they don't have their passports with them.

""Although they have been continually hurt by their employers, they can't go anywhere as they don't have their passport with them.

""The employers know this, and use it to control and hold their workers hostage,"" said Endang Sulistyaningsih, director of promotion at the newly established National Agency for the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Overseas Workers (BNPPTKI).

Indonesia is the biggest supplier of workers to Malaysia. Endang said that according to data from the Manpower Ministry, around 1.2 million Indonesians work in Malaysia, along with 500,000 illegal workers.

She said Indonesia has demanded Malaysia allow each Indonesian migrant worker to keep his or her passport while working in the country during a renegotiation of a bilateral memorandum of understanding on migrant workers Thursday and Friday in Surabaya.

""International law has already ruled that the passport is a basic right for the workers. It can't be separated from them. Beside the passport, we are also negotiating a wage raise and the right of a weekly day off, as well as certain requirements employers must meet, such as no criminal record and having a certain income level,"" Endang said.

Wahyu Susilo, founder of Migrant Care, a non-governmental organization dealing with migrant workers and human trafficking, said Malaysia would have trouble meeting Indonesia's demand because its law stipulates that the passport must be kept by employers.

""Unless they change the law, the condition will stay the same,"" he said, announcing that he had been told the Malaysian delegation in Surabaya could not agree to Indonesia's demand.

Endang said Indonesia had approached Malaysian leaders and lawmakers to amend its law.

Wahyu also urged Malaysia to treat Indonesian illegal migrant workers as victims of human trafficking, and not merely as violators of immigration laws.

Deputy senior law enforcement adviser at the U.S. Department of Justice, Robert C. Barlow, agreed the issue of illegal migrant workers could not be separated from the issue of trafficking in people.

He said around 35,000 Indonesians had become victims of human trafficking as a result of illegal haj practices.

Barlow said some recruitment agencies sent people on the haj, but without sufficient money they could not return home and had to become illegal workers somewhere in the Middle East.

""Indonesia has to be tougher on the recruitment agencies as some of them play a big part in sending illegal workers abroad. They have to receive substantial penalties and prison terms,"" he said.

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