Malaysia has agreed, in principle, with all the measurements Indonesia has proposed to protect its migrant workers following a ban on sending migrants to the country, says the Indonesian Foreign Ministry.
“In principle, we have already reached a deal, but we have to look at the implementation before the ban can be revoked,” Arief Havas Oegroseno, the Foreign Ministry’s director general for national treaties and legal affairs, said Monday.
The ban was imposed last June in response to a string of horrific abuse cases of Indonesian migrant workers.
Malaysia hosts around 2 million migrant workers from Indonesia.
Indonesian Ambassador to Malaysia Da’i Bachtiar said Saturday that Jakarta would lift the ban in March after both countries struck a deal at the end of February and negotiations over minimum salary and periodical wage increases were completed.
Da’i said Indonesia had proposed a minimum salary of 800 ringgit a month for migrant workers.
Jakarta has proposed that Indonesian migrants get a day off per week, have a periodical wage increase, be permitted to keep their own passports and have their transportation expenses reimbursed by their employers.
Havas said the Malaysian government had approved the proposed measures, including the starting salary for migrant workers.
“We are now working on the technical issue of putting those agreed points into a memorandum of understanding [MoU].”
He said the Malaysian government would also have to include the day-off requirement into their labor regulations.
“After all the measures are put in place we will review the implementation of the MoU by the Malaysian government. If everything is alright, then we will lift the ban,” said Havas, adding the MoU did not require ratification by parliaments in both countries.
Activists, experts and lawmakers welcomed the deal with Kuala Lumpur, although they said it would only solve part of problem.
Hikmahanto Juwana, a law professor at the University of Indonesia, said the implementation of the bilateral agreement would depend on the Malaysian authorities, arguing that Indonesia should also monitor migrant worker conditions.
“Our government should ensure the agreement is fully implemented,” he said.
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