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Govt urged to reconsider ban on migrant domestic workers
President Joko âJokowiâ WIdodoâs recent statement on the governmentâs plans to stop the dispatch of Indonesian female domestic workers has drawn strong criticism from a number of community groups in Sumbawa, West Nusa Tenggara
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resident Joko 'Jokowi' WIdodo's recent statement on the government's plans to stop the dispatch of Indonesian female domestic workers has drawn strong criticism from a number of community groups in Sumbawa, West Nusa Tenggara.
They said the government must reconsider its plan as it would affect the regency, which is a leading source of Indonesian female migrant workers.
'At this time, working as a domestic helper abroad is still a promising job opportunity for most Sumbawa residents. If the dispatch of workers is stopped, it will have a huge impact on the economy of the people and increase unemployment in this area,' Khaeruddin, 45, head of Ngeru village in Moyo Hilir district, Sumbawa, told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.
He said the trend of working abroad as domestic helpers in Saudi Arabia and other Middle East countries had begun in Ngeru village in the1990s, triggered primarily by poverty and a lack of employment opportunities.
Based on official village administration data, more than 60 percent of the total number of Ngeru's population, which amounts to 628 heads of families or 1,668 people, is recorded as having once been workers or domestic helpers abroad.
Ngeru is one of dozens of villages in 24 districts in Sumbawa that are sources of migrant female domestic workers.
After the imposition of a moratorium on the dispatch of female domestic workers to Saudi Arabia in 2010, many Ngeru villagers shifted their focus to other countries.
The Sumbawa administration's manpower and transmigration agency data shows that in 2014 Sumbawa sent 5,014 female domestic workers and 111 other workers, an increase on the previous year when 4,048 female domestic workers and 99 other workers went abroad.
'Most of the workers dispatched are working in the informal sector as domestic helpers. Apart from other Middle East countries not affected by the moratorium policy, other Asian countries such as Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand have become destination countries,' the agency's head of Indonesian migrant worker protection and placement, Nur Hikmah, told the Post.
Nur said the value of remittances sent by migrant domestic workers to Sumbawa amounted to Rp 190 billion (US$14.93 million) in 2014, up from Rp 172 billion in the previous year. (ebf)(++++)
