Cases on W. Java migrant workers ‘increasing’

BANDUNG: The West Java Labor and Transmigration Agency has recorded 43 cases of migrant workers from the province being victimized in overseas countries in the past three months.

Agency head Hening Widiatmoko said that the number of cases had increased from last year, when a total of 137 cases were reported.

“The cases were all reported in the household sector and included incidents such as fleeing from employers, losing communication with relatives at home, unpaid wages and deaths,” Hening said during a seminar on migrant worker protection in Bandung on Wednesday.

She said that the number could be larger than previously reported given the fact that many migrant workers ventured to destinations illegally.

She said that many migrant workers faced uncertain futures in dealing with their problems because of poor legal assistance from home.

The administration plans to draft a regulation next year on the dispatch of migrant workers. Hening said that the mapping of problems would be needed as a source for the draft.