I

ndonesian migrant workers are at risk of harsh treatment and exploitation as the region moves toward the introduction of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) by the end of 2015 unless the region comes up with a legally binding instrument, officials have said.

The Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that it was currently negotiating with other ASEAN countries to agree on an ASEAN migrant-workers protection regime.

'€œWe are pushing so that the documents can be used as a framework whenever there is a dispute [regarding the fate and welfare of Indonesian migrant workers] in the future,'€ the ministry'€™s director of ASEAN functional cooperation, George Lantu, said.

The instrument is a follow up to the ASEAN Declaration on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers (Cebu Declaration) in 2007.

It consists of the fundamental norms of the protection of ASEAN migrant workers.

However, there have been multiple interpretations of what is meant by the '€œinstrument'€ outlined in the Cebu Declaration.

The instrument is interpreted by Indonesia and other states that exports workers as an international agreement. However, to some other ASEAN countries, mostly receiving states, the '€œinstrument'€ is no more than guidance, which is not legally binding.

Human Rights Working Group (HRWG) senior advisor on ASEAN Yuyun Wahyuningrum said it was important for the government to fight for an instrument that was legally binding.

'€œIf it'€™s not legally binding then there'€™s no sense of responsibility [among ASEAN countries],'€ she said on Thursday.

In the current negotiations, the Indonesian government is also pushing for the instrument to be non-discriminatory, since there is concern that the AEC would discriminate against unskilled workers.

'€œThe AEC'€™s blueprint only concerns the free flow of skilled workers. The question now is whether domestic helpers are deemed skilled workers or not,'€ George said.

Most Indonesian migrant workers are employed as domestic staff, according to Migrant Care, an NGO advocating for the rights of Indonesian workers abroad.

There are also concerns that the current draft of the instrument contains many flaws.

'€œThere are still many loopholes, for instance the instrument prohibits the formation of labor unions, since not all ASEAN countries have labor unions,'€ Yuyun said. '€œAlso, there'€™s no standard on migrant workers'€™ wages.'€

The instrument will also likely fail to ensure the protection of migrant workers'€™ families, including providing education for the children of migrant workers.

'€œIn ASEAN countries, tuition fees are higher for foreigners than for locals. This is hard for migrant workers,'€ said Yuyun.

Considering flaws in the draft, Yuyun urged the government not to sign the instrument before all ASEAN countries had agreed to include better protection measures in the draft.

'€œIf the instrument fails to guarantee the protection of basic rights for migrant workers, then Indonesia has to reject the instrument,'€ Yuyun said.

Analyst Irine Hiraswari Gayatri from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) said that if ASEAN countries could not reach an agreement regarding protection for migrant workers, Indonesia could resort to bilateral diplomacy to protect its migrant workers.

'€œThe ASEAN framework won'€™t work because individual ASEAN countries have their own interests,'€ she said.

However, Irine doubted that the current administration could be effective in its bilateral diplomacy given its inward-looking tendency.

'€œThese days, it is as if the government wants to prove that having zero friends does not matter, as opposed to the '€˜thousands friends, zero enemies'€™ adopted by the administration of president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

'€œThis is ruining our image as a good boy in the region because for years we had never been aggressive,'€ she said.