Jakarta has been cautioned that its decision to suspend the sending of maids to Malaysia in protest against rampant cases of abuse could prompt more Indonesians to work illegally in the neighboring country.
"The government should anticipate the socio-economic impact of the decision," International Labor Organization (ILO) national project coordinator A.Y. Bonasahat said according to Antara after addressing a seminar on human trafficking in Jember, East Java, on Saturday.
He warned the suspension could lead to an increase of people going to Malaysia to work illegally.
He said several hundred women seeking work in Malaysia are believed to have standing arrangements with several centers run by private labor agencies across Indonesia and that middlemen could turn on their clients.
"The middlemen would ask for their money back from the workers that would make the workers trapped in debt," Bonasahat added.
"The government must consider the problems and find the right solution for them so that the political decision would not become a boomerang for Indonesia."
Similar concerns were voiced by deputy Malang regent Rendra Kresna, who urged the government to provide regional administrations with immediate solutions to the these problems.
He said the decision would not stop Indonesian workers from going to Malaysia via "illegal channels".
Malang, East Java is the biggest supplier of maids to Malaysia. Last year it sent more than 5,500 workers and in 2009 it is on track to send more than 6,600.
South Sumatra Governor Alex Noerdin meanwhile supported the suspension, saying all parties involved should work together to solve the problem.
"We *should* think of how to create jobs in this country. They *migrant workers* go overseas because there are no jobs available in the country with decent salaries."
The temporary ban has been protested by the Malaysian Association of Foreign Housemaids Agencies.
Association president Raja Zulkeply Dahalan said the suspension could prompt more Indonesians to work illegally in his country.
He said some 4,000 Indonesian maids were recruited to work in Malaysia each month before Indonesia issued the ban, which it will enforce until Kuala Lumpur ensures protections for them.
"If this deadlock continues, everybody will lose," Raja Zulkeply told The Associated Press.
Senior officials from both countries will hold talks to settle the dispute on July 15.
| 
|
|
|
|
|
|
|